Love You Forever
by DementedPancake
Summary: She wanted him. He wanted her. The classic happy ending, right? Not likely when one is the spawn of Satan. A re-written, BBRae-centric version of the animated cartoon, demonstrating how they might have fallen love. TEMPORARY HIATUS
1. Divide and Conquer

**I hope you all enjoy my written bullshit. Titans obviously don't belong to me. Also, I've decided to take things slowly with Raven and Beast Boy, by building relationships with the other Titans (friendship-wise. I don't intend to pair our main heroes all willy-nilly.) Remake of the next chapter possibly next week, maybe a little later—my apologies.**

...

They had been a team for...how long now?

Beast Boy stopped and thought, about to take a bite from a ketchup and tofu sandwich.

Huh. It was so weird how time seemed to flit away from him after he joined yet _another _superhero squad. It was about six weeks since they came together? Yeah, that sounded right—no, wait. Maybe it was seven. Honestly, he couldn't remember.

Sometimes it felt as if he had always been a member of the Teen Titans.

After the alien attack on Jump City, the group of misfits decided that it was best if they stuck around to protect the unsuspecting citizens within. And what better way to do that than to start their own rag-tag team? They might as well, since the town already adored them for saving their hides, and each of the new Titans had no where else to go.

Beast Boy certainly didn't.

He refused to think about the reason _why _he had previously been homeless. It didn't matter now. All that mattered was that he had new friends, a new city to defend, a new family...

First there was Robin, the team leader. _The_ Robin. As in, Batman's Robin. Beast Boy would admit, chagrined, that he spent the first two weeks on the team a bit starstruck. Growing up on the Doom Patrol, Robin was Beast Boy's idol. Meeting him in person, fighting alongside him, becoming a member of his team—it was a dream come true! But reality sunk in after he had tried to get an autograph for the third time, and Robin awkwardly told him that the hero worship had to stop. "I'm just...me, Beast Boy. I may be the leader of the team, but you're just as much of a hero as I am. We're friends now; equals."

And thus, Robin became a regular crime-fighter, along with everyone else.

Starfire was the girl who had kind of joined the group together in the first place—at least she united them to fight against a common enemy. She was an alien (which wasn't even weird, considering who else was on the team) with a very sweet, fragile exterior. She was confused about a lot of Earthly customs, to an almost comical extent. To anyone else, she would look like a beautiful, if not exotic-looking, female human. But she possessed a frightening level of strength. And—Beast Boy had never told _anyone _this—he was nursing a slight crush on her. Not a very major one, seeing how she was obviously interested in Robin, but just big enough that he would get clammy looking at her.

He bit into his lunch, pushing the thoughts of the beautiful but never-attainable alien from his mind, and focused on the remaining members of his team. (_His_ team! He'd never get used to that!)

Cyborg. Cyborg was definitely the member of the team he was closest to. He was his first best friend, the first person he could share a joke with, or toss an insult back and forth to. He was older than him by about three years, but treated Beast Boy like an actual person instead of a little kid. Sure, he didn't know how old he was yet, but still. Teaching him how to act cool, or how to play video games was just a bonus to hanging out. Cyborg was like a jock and a tech nerd, all rolled up into one giant mass of robot and human. In fact, with the help of Robin's funding, he had basically _built_ Titans Tower, the giant T-shaped building all five Titans resided in.

Beast Boy chewed thoughtfully, the muscles in his throat working as he swallowed. This sandwich is too dry, he decided, hopping off of the kitchen stool and heading towards the 'fridge for a carton of soy milk. Gah, he couldn't even fathom why his teammates all ate that disgusting processed meat, which hid his precious tofu and soy products.

All five.

Finally, there was the fifth Titan, the Titan that no one knew anything about: Raven.

She was...odd. She kept to herself mainly, and never ventured outside of her room unless the situation called for it. She didn't speak, didn't express herself, didn't laugh. She stayed wrapped up in that cloak of hers and tried to blend in with the wallpaper. Yet, despite how hard she tried to remain unnoticed, she carried an aura of suspicion around her; of fear. She sent his animal instincts raging, screaming that she was a threat to his survival. Beast Boy didn't even know what she was, but her witch powers were impressive, and those spells of her really came in handy during a fight.

If only he knew what she _was._

Then again, as much as they ignored the fact, _none _of the teenage superheroes really knew anything of importance about each other. Raven, however, was even more mysterious.

_Speak of the Devil, and she will appear_.

The doors to the main room swished open, and in walked none other than the dark mistress herself. A thick, blue cloak hid all but her booted feet. Her hood was up, as always, casting a deep shadow across her face. She strode down the steps silently, glancing at the kitchen where Beast Boy was sitting. He nodded his head in a greeting, but she icily turned and ignored him.

Jeez, he thought, irked, tossing his dishes into the sink. They were already starting to pile up, but oh well, it was Cyborgs' turn to wash the dishes anyway.

Would it kill her to say hello? Maybe it would, he didn't know. Maybe she would say hi, let her guard slip for a second, and then burst into flames.

Ha, that was pretty funny. He'd let Cy know about his musings later.

Now, though, he couldn't help but watch what she was about to do. Raven, as far as he knew, barely ever came into the main room. Too noisy, she once said. Perhaps now that no one else was here to bother her she had decided to brave it; although she seemed peeved that Beast Boy was in the room with her, sharing her oxygen.

She stopped just in front of the large glass windows, staring at the view. It was pretty magnificent, Beast Boy thought. The Tower overlooked the glittering lake below, as well as half of the city. The sun shining through murky clouds, casting the perfect amount of light and shade in the room. Then she lifted her hands, startlingly pale, and removed her hood. With her back towards him, all Beast Boy could see was purple. In a second, Raven had her legs crossed and she sat quietly on the floor. Beast Boy sipped his milk, half-interested. So she came out here to sit? Why not just use the sofa?

Just as he was about to turn away, bored, the girl began to float several feet in the air.

It wasn't shocking—not at all, since he had _seen_ her fly before. Besides, he could morph into animals, for Pete's sake! It wasn't as if something as simple as floating a little was abnormal. But it gained his interest yet again, and it also raised the question: _What on _Earth _is she doing?_

Whatever. None of my business, Beast Boy struggled to ignore her, picking at his teeth. If she wants to float there, she can go ahead and do it.

But it was only seconds before curiosity finally consumed him. Here was a girl no one knew _anything_ about, hovering in the near-empty room doing who-knew-what. It was only fair to the rest of the team that he find out what was going on.

As quietly as he could, Beast Boy crept over to her floating body. His ears twitched, trying to keep his footsteps undetectable, and he was half-way across the room when Raven suddenly spoke, her voice completely toneless.

"Sneaking up to me would not be wise."

Beast Boy froze, caught. But..how? _He_ hadn't even heard him, so how could she? He frowned, trying to understand how she had sensed him coming. "I wasn't..."

"Sneaking? Then why were you trying to stay so quiet?"

"I—" He started, the stopped. His mouth hung open dumbly. She had him there.

Damn! What _were_ her powers, anyway?

"Fine, I was sneaking," he admitted, walking the rest of the distance, having given up on stealth. She stayed silent as he stopped beside her. "I didn't want to interrupt..." He hesitated, staring at her-she was floating with her crossed legs about eye level with him. "...Whatever you were doing."

No response.

Beast Boy took a second to take in her appearance, having grown used to her features blurred by shadow and her body hidden under her cloak. The first thing he noticed was her hair. It was a strange shade of violet; she had it cut short. Probably by herself, he judged critically, looking at the choppy, uneven strands that fell unflattering around her face. She had tiny features, all very close together. Between two bushy, black eyebrows—_Don't most girls tweeze theirs?—_was a red gem. Her skin was a sickly gray, as if she had never seen the sun before. Her body was still mainly hidden by her cloak, but he could see a hint of pale, bare legs.

_Wouldn't it be funny if she were naked under there?_ He desperately tried not to laugh at his own joke.

Not bad, he thought, wincing when he realized how shallow his once-over was. She wasn't a hideous beast, but she wasn't any bit of attractive-she _definitely_ wasn't a Starfire.

_Shut up!_ The normal part of his mind was thinking. _Just because you're a teenage boy doesn't give you the right to rate her looks on a scale of one to ten!_

Shaking his head, to clear any mean thoughts he had, he continued, "So. What _are_ you doing?"

"You're very nosy, aren't you?" Raven questioned, and if Beast Boy wasn't listening carefully, he could have sworn she was amused.

His ears flattened defensively. "I have a natural sense of curiosity. And I'm not the only one who wants to know what the heck you're doing."

"Meditating." Beast Boy twitched, surprised to have gotten an answer out of the girl.

"Meditating? Why? That's, like, so boring! I could never sit still like that for such a long time," he informed his enigma of a teammate.

Her lips tilted downward a fraction. "Obviously."

"What do you meditate for? Don't you watch TV or anything? Or—"

Raven opened her eyes, and Beast Boy recoiled. She had the widest eyes he had ever seen, and they were such a deep shade of blue they almost looked purple. They were really...nice, he finished his thought lamely. She had nice eyes. And for a second, before she slipped into a sleepy/bored expression, he could see annoyance flash behind them.

"Because I have to," she answered coldly. Having lost all concentration, Raven lowered her feet to the floor. Beast Boy was a bit upset that he was a few inches shorter than she was. She looked back at him, and Beast Boy was flooded with the urge to run away. Her eyes were nice, but there was something hidden behind them, something Beast Boy would never want to face. Something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. And aside from that, they looked positively...dead. Dead, as if she had seen some unholy horror that stayed with her everyday.

It frightened him. _She_ frightened him.

"Bad things happen when I don't."

With that, she jammed her hood back up, and slouched out of the room, leaving him alone again to contemplate what she meant. The doors swished closed, and Beast Boy shivered. Even though she was gone, he could still feel her presence. It left him feeling ice cold.

...

Raven sat in midair, staring at the empty prison courtyard below her. From her perch, she could see everyone, and every_thing, _that would come or go. It was only a matter of time before the villain that had dragged the Titans out of their Tower would enter the area.

She looked to the side, only for a moment, to observe her other teammates. Teammates_. _She would never get used to that word. She would never get used to thinking of herself as a _member_ of a team. Much less a team of crime-fighters; Raven always thought that people like the Titans would be plotting her downfall, and yet here she was, floating next to four other outcasts, waiting to pounce on a criminal composed entirely out of concrete. This definitely wasn't what she imagined when she was first sent to this dimension. She had thought...

No. A barrier rose in her mind, blocking any memories that would distract her. That would upset her. She didn't need to remember what her purpose on this planet was. Not now, at least. She went back to staring at the entrance.

She licked her dry lips, tasting rotten milk. She hated not being able to sense the oncoming villain. It was bothersome that after relying on her psychic powers for so long, she could not use her abilities of emotional persuasiveness on him. The others, however, we drenched in feelings.

The taste of rotten milk was brought on by the eagerness of her fellow Titans. Everyone was tense and ready to leap out at a moments notice. Everyone but one red-haired vixen.

Starfire was waiting in the air alongside her; humming to herself, a tune Raven could not recognize. Her long legs were crossed primly, and although she was waiting to beat the hell out of a dangerous escapee, she looked completely relaxed. She was always happy when they were fighting, always calm before a battle. Starfire, Raven suspected, never really understood the perilous tasks the Teen Titans partook in. Maybe she was just stupid and everything seemed like a fun game.

But, then again, could it have been because of her savage upbringing that Starfire enjoy the thought of violence? That sounded more reasonable, but, to find the thought of hurting another person...

Raven snorted. She was not the right person to judge for blood lust.

On her left was Cyborg, clinging to the wall, metal fingers digging handholds into the concrete. Sweat was already glistening on the bald, dark-skinned half of his head. It must have been nerve-wracking to be the only one who wouldn't be able to balance himself on a small ledge, or float silently. He looked like he was trying very hard not to fall. Both his mechanical eye and his human one were trained on the ground, but when he saw Raven watching him, he grinned nervously and winked. The hooded empath blinked in response, and he went back to clutching the wall.

"AH-CHOO!"

Four heads shot towards the source of the noise. _Of course._

Beast Boy wiped his nose, smiling sheepishly when the sneeze echoed back. Raven sneered at his unprofessional display. He was lucky that the alarms hadn't yet sounded, and that Cinderblock had yet to stop by. With his stupidity, he could have blown their position and ruined their hide-away.

He sat on his haunches, a predators stance. He was attempting to look mysterious and threatening, but Raven could taste the parchment-like nervousness; he did not want to mess up this mission, not after he had let three bank robbers get away with three thousand dollars last week. They had been apprehended, yes, but it had taken longer than they had expected. Every few seconds, however much he tried to stay dedicated to the mission, his eyes would flicker over to the purple-clad alien girl. His ears twitched and Raven shut her eyes, breathing deeply as she tried not to vomit. She hated the taste of affection-it tasted like pure bleach.

Robin was the most eager. He was staring intensely down, one leg kneeling on the floor, the other bent up into his chest. He clenched and unclenched his fists, prepared. This was always a thrill for him, waiting for the villain before bringing him to justice. But, other than that, Raven could get no other reading from him. His emotions were always hidden, or only partly exposed. The only other person she knew with such impressive self-restraint was herself.

He intrigued her.

Sirens blared, the room bathed in pulsing red light. There were sounds of gunfire and shouts, and the rumbling that followed shook the entire building. It was as if the very Earth was being ripped apart.

"He's here," Robin alerted the team of the obvious, a small smile playing on his lips. Maybe Starfire wasn't the only one who looked forward to a good fight.

Suddenly, all sounds ceased. The alarm quit its shrill whine, the gunfire had ended, and it was as if there had been no destruction moments ago.

The thundering footsteps of the cement man echoed off the walls as he marched indoors to a room full of cells, searching for something. Raven wished again that she could get some form of emotional reading off of him, but was given nothing. Robin glanced at Beast Boy and nodded once.

The hulking monster paused for a moment.

Then Beast Boy taunted, "You know, Cinderblock, normally the bad guys break _out_ of jail." His voice did not shake or betray his anxiousness, taking on a teasing lilt.

Robin followed after him threateningly, "And I can think of five good reasons why you don't wanna' break in."

Cinderblock tuned and his red eyes widened in shock. So he can express emotion, but he cannot feel it? Raven wondered. Peculiar.

"One!" Robin screamed. The short, black-haired boy dressed in bright colors dropped from the sky, yellow cape flowing behind him. He landed in a crouch, composed although Cinderblock outweighed him by tons. He did not move to brush the stray stands of hair from his masked eyes, glaring heavily at Cinderblock instead.

"Two!" Starfire flew down to the ground, silver bracelets shining, hands glowing with green energy. She looked like a...a warrior princess, the most beautiful and fierce thing alive, hair like flames whipping around her. She could see why Beast Boy found her attractive.

"Three!" The changeling announced. A green tiger roared as it pounced after his orange companion, and in a flash transformed into the skinny boy in a purple-and-black jumpsuit from before, his gloved hands balled into fists. A lone fang protruded from his lower lip and his unnaturally pointed ears were perked up. My cue, Raven sighed.

"Four," she said in a less-than-enthusiastic voice. She halted the magical flow keeping her floating and fell, dropping gracefully to her feet. One hand was drawn closely to her body while the other was outstretched forward, in case she needed to strike or cast a spell.

"Five!" Cyborg boomed, lunging towards the rest of his team. One robotic fist was pulled back to punch, the other thrust out to straighten his balance. His left leg was tucked underneath him as he braced himself for the impact.

The five teenagers stood in formation, tense and ready to deliver justice.

Robin narrowed his eyes, making himself the known leader.

"No matter how you do the math," he jeered, "it all adds up to you going _down_." He raised an eyebrow. "So, are you going to go quietly?"

"Or is this going to get loud?" The cybernetic one finished in a deep voice. Cinderblock answered by letting out a warriors' cry, raising both fists and charging at them.

"Titans, go!" Robin yelled, signaling that it was time to reprimand this criminal. They took off, first Cyborg, Robin, the two females, both levitating, and then Beast Boy, who had shape-shifted into the form of a crow. Robin leaped into the air, landing a spinning kick to Cinderblock's head.

He landed in front of Cinderblock, who turned around to defend himself. Instead, Starfire grinned evilly, her hands and eyes glowing a feral green. "Wah!" she screamed as twin bursts of light bolted from her hands and blasted Cinderblock backwards. Yes, Raven realized, she had guessed correctly. Starfire liked the adrenaline-rush that came from fighting.

Cyborg let loose a cry as her went to punch the villain. Unfortunately for him, Cinderblock wasn't so disorientated that he could not block, so his metal fist connected with his stone one, sending sparks flying madly. The tremor sent Cinderblock back a few steps as he recovered.

The green crow cawed angrily, using his talons to scrape against Cinderblock's shoulders, sending him running.

Running, sadly, right towards Raven. Calling forth her powers, drawing energy into her body, she exhaled deeply. Don't let it overtake you Raven. Control it; use it. She could feel the familiar tingle of magic, and she lifted her arms heavenwards, telekinetically taking a giant chunk of the ground with her. Before he could stop, Cinderblock rammed straight into the barrier she had created. Before he could ram her, Raven floated to safety next to the rest of her team.

Again, the teenagers stampeded, and Cinderblock raised one mighty arm, swinging it with all of his might to defend himself; the move sent Cyborg and Robin flying backwards. Starfire glanced back at her fallen teammates as she sped past them. Frustrated, she bent her arm to send another green light bolt at Cinderblock.

But Cinderblock was prepared this time as she started throwing them randomly, and he reached towards her without any caution for his own well-being. He grunted as they hit him, but he ignored it and grabbed Starfire, who gasped in astonishment. He glared, bringing her close to his face.

She smiled at the stupid villain, and in a calm voice, said, "I am sorry to disappoint you." Her eyes began to glow again, and her pleasant face twisted into a scowl. "But I am stronger than I look."

With a bellow of effort, she lifted her foot and kicked him in the chin, freeing her of his grasp.

Cinderblock stumbled and backed into the closed bars of a cell. The green crow cawed again, dropping downwards as he flew. He transformed into an angry green tyrannosaurus, reared up, and bent his knees. Then he let out a roar and rushed towards him, footsteps heavy. Cinderblock remained unfazed, as if the mighty dinosaur was nothing but an annoyance, bringing his fist down onto his face and sending him soaring through the air.

Pain erupted in the left side of Beast Boy's face, and for a second he thought the entire side of his skull had caved in. Stupid concrete fist. Stupid dinosaur bones.

"Azarath Mentrion—"

Oh, damn. Raven!

Before he could crush her, Beast Boy transformed back into his original human form. Beast Boy screamed as he plummeted downwards, landing on top of the spell-caster. His head hit the floor and he groaned, but the rest of his body seemed fine; Raven had probably cushioned the fall. .

Beast Boy shook his head as he quickly stood up, followed by the cloaked girl.

"Heh," he tried laughing. This was not good; this was _so_ not good. He had just dive-bombed the only member of the team that absolutely despised his existence. She definitely wasn't happy with him now.

Well, when in trouble, always go for comedy. "Watch out for...falling dinosaurs?" His voice cracked in a prepubescent way that annoyed him. She frowned, narrowing her eyes while blowing a stray strand of violet hair away from her face. She looked angry, the only actual emotion Beast Boy had ever seen her exhibit. And he felt his organs shrivel up under her glower.

Sensing that she was not amused by his attempt at humor, he straightened his spine and smiled in a terrified way. Oh, Jeez, she was going to hurt him. Why couldn't he have landed on Starfire or something? That would have been _much _better than Raven, the scary chick that looked like she was going to blow him up. For all he knew, she was.

"I'm...gunna leave you alone now."

And with that he rocketed away from her, flailing his arms wildly. If he put enough distance between him and Raven, maybe he'd be safe. Not from the rampaging construction-site-wannabee that was Cinderblock, but from the cloaked girl herself.

Cinderblock guffawed. He motioned to move when Robin threw himself onto his back. Cinderblock twisted and turned, trying to throw him off to no avail. He grabbed onto the nearest thing, which happened to be the bars of a cell, and pulled, ripping a rod off to use as a weapon.

"Thrashing only makes me hold on tighter!" Robin promised. Without warning, Cinderblock tried hitting him off his back. This time his attack worked. Robin swiftly jumped from his back and landed next to Cyborg.

"Now there's a good idea," the metal man marveled, turning and ripping a support beam from the building. With shouts and grunts of exertion, Cyborg and Cinderblock continued to sword-fight with the two rods—it would have been totally awesome had it not been one of his best friends fighting. The metallic clangs echoed loudly as the two metal pieces connected with each other, waves rolling off of the point that had been hit. Cinderblock caught one of Cyborg's blows, and Cyborg groaned as he tried to keep from being overpowered. Cinderblock's arms shook as he slowly pushed Cyborg away until he skidded a few feet backwards.

Cinderblock let out another yell as he swung the bar in his hands like a baseball bat. Cyborg never had an opportunity to jump out of the way, and he sailed across the floor once he was hit. The shriek of his metal parts scraping against the concrete floor rang in Beast Boys' ears even after he slowed to a stop.

Starfire floated in front of him tauntingly, Raven by her side. Cinderblock raised his arms to swing again, but the metal beam melted into a useless heap in his hands. Starfire laughed triumphantly at her success, and Beast Boy fought to keep his attention on the fight. Her laugh was just so nice.

Knowing when he was beat, Cinderblock turned and ran from the girls.

Cyborg lay on the floor helplessly until a green-gloved hand offered him assistance. He took it and began to dust himself off when he was upright again. "Wanna give this guy The Sonic Boom?" Robin asked.

Cyborg grinned and raised his right arm. Mechanisms whizzed as his limb transformed into a canon. "I got The Sonic if you got The Boom."

He turned to see his friends face, who smirked and punched his palm with his hand expectantly. The rest of their team members stood to watch the epic Sonic Boom. Beast Boy loved to see a good fight—at least, when he wasn't one of the people actually _in _the fight.

"Yo, Rock-head!" Cyborg called. Cinderblock stopped mid-step to turn to the teenagers.

Cyborg's arm hummed into activation as he ran. Robin was alongside him and the two crossed paths before crossing again, then running up against the walls of the hallway. They were about to cross upside down once again when tragedy struck.

Their ankles caught.

The two spun out of control while yelling in surprise. Cyborg was thrown into the wall, hitting it with a loud thud. When he fell to the floor, his arm-canon went of and fired at Starfire and Beast Boy, both who scrambled out of the way of the cybernetic blast. There was silence, no sound at all, before noise once returned to Beast Boy. But something was wrong..why was everything so muffled? Oh, man, don't tell me—

_Did Cy just deafen me?_

Robin was thrown into the opposite wall, grunting at the impact. As he crashed to the floor, one of his explosives flew from his hands and landed near Raven's feet. With five quick beeps, the bomb went off, a white light flashing and temporarily blinding the girl who threw her arms up in a vain attempt to defend herself.

Cinderblock looked around at the fallen heroes and smirked. He proceeded to bash through wall after wall until he was out of sight. Orange-clad prisoners looked around in a dazed manner before cheering happily. "Freedom!" they screamed, making a mad dash for the exits.

Robin scratched his head, wondering what could have gone wrong, before he heard the cheers of the stampeding prisoners. He motioned to his teammates to help him put things right and they nodded in agreement. From his utility belt, Robin withdrew a long staff and readied himself to fight.

The four teenagers leaped into action. Raven joined in, throwing random men in orange jumpsuits off of her. From behind her she heard Beast Boy roar and frighten several prisoners silly. Robin was concentrating too hard to feel anything but determination, and Starfire was still cheery, but getting annoyed at the constant interruptions of their fight.

One man began to creep behind Beast Boy. She saw him, but was kicked in the stomach by a mohawked young man, and gasped at the sudden pain. Beast Boy could handle himself—with his supersonic hearing, he had probably already sensed the man coming. She turned her attention back towards the punk that had slipped away into the riot.

"Gotcha!" A man screamed madly, throwing and arm around his neck and bending his elbow so that he crushed the green boy to his body.

_What the—?_

Beast Boy gasped before his air supply was cut off by the man with the knife. He hadn't even known someone was sneaking up behind him-the room stank of mold and socks, and because of Cyborgs' wonderful intervention, his hearing was almost as bad as a regular civilians.

He needed to transform into something. Something big that would be able to throw this guy off of him. Like a gorilla. He tried to picture the animal in his mind, but he was starting to see black spots cloud his vision and he couldn't think right enough to shape-shift. His eyes darted from Robin to Starfire for help, but both were busy with their own group of escapees. They were both paying no attention to him at all. This was bad. Very bad.

Raven punched the mohawked criminal in the face, content to have hunted him down, before she turned around to see Beast Boy being strangled by a man with long red hair holding something shiny. A knife, she instantly realized. He has a knife.

Beast Boy's face was turning a color between green and blue as he lost more and more air. The disgusting taste of the mans insanity almost made Raven black out. "Ready, kid?" the man asked as he raised his knife.

Raven was enraged. She was more angry at herself than she was at the criminal; she had seen him heading towards Beast Boy, and she hadn't even called out a warning. She had been too busy with her own group of criminals, and now...She was so utterly angry that she slipped for a moment, and the cell behind her exploded with dark energy, the door blowing off of it's hinges.

Calm. Stay calm.

She struggled to reign in her fury and self-disappointment before she could bring the entire building down. She hadn't lost control like that for weeks.

Creating a force field with her mind, she frowned and mentally pushed it towards the red-haired man. "Argh!" he cried as it smashed into him, like a wave at the beach. He released Beast Boy, who dropped to the floor and gasped. The force field enclosed around his body like a telekinetic straightjacket, and he was forced up against a wall.

He looked down at her, then at the pocket-knife that had skidded across the floor. Bad, angry thoughts clouded her mind. Violent thoughts of tearing his limbs off, ripping him into pieces. He hurt her teammate, wanted to draw blood, tried to carve into his flesh, maybe she should make him feel the same sensation by—

**Calm. Stay calm.**

Raven blinked, aware of her surroundings. The din of fighting still went on, and she became aware of Beast Boys' presence behind her.

She used her powers to bash his head against the wall, knocking him out.

Satisfied, Raven turned on her heel back towards Beast Boy. He was still slightly scared, but his breathing was back to normal. He looked up at her and coughed. "Wow, he caught me by surprise. Thanks for that."

He grinned that annoying grin of his, one fang poking out from his lower lip, and Raven felt the overpowering urge to smile back. She had nearly gotten him killed; the least he deserved was a smile.

Instead, she offered a hand, a reasonable teammate-to-teammate gesture. Raven felt him shiver as he accepted it, pulling himself up. That was good, she thought. He should be afraid of me.

So why wasn't she happy with it?

"He shouldn't have caught you off guard like that. Make sure I don't have to do that again," she said tonelessly, and his smile fell a little bit. Guilt almost started to form in her gut, but she forced it away. She may not have warned him, but she shouldn't have had to. They were superheroes; he couldn't expect her to keep an eye on him all the time.

She tasted disappointment from him now. And the same ever-constant feeling of fear of her as well.

Two thick-necked men made a break for the exit before she could start to feel bad again, whooping with unfiltered glee. The demon within her enjoyed the feeling of hunting the running prisoners down.

"We're gunna make it!" The blonde one yelled. Before they could escape, the doors that had been previously unhinged were surrounded by a black aura and meshed back into place.

"Huh?" They both wondered in unison.

As the dark aura disappeared, Raven materialized from the doors, scaring both of them. Were prisoners always so easy to scare?She pondered as they both trembled. Their fear tasted like battery acid on her tongue.

"Think again," she told them, suppressing her own self-satisfaction. They quailed at the sight of her, rooted to the spot.

Good, she thought. Everyone should be afraid of me.

The prisoners were escorted back to their cells by the guards one by one in handcuffs as the five Titans watched from the side. Beast Boy morphed back from gorilla form and stood on his hands and knees before returning to human posture. "Jail break? I don't see any jail break!" He squeaked, raising an arm towards the thoroughly upset prisoners. Raven frowned at the bitter taste of both Robin and Cyborg's anger. An argument was about to break out.

"None of us would have seen one if _Cyborg_ hadn't messed up!" He crossed his arms and turned away like a defiant child, which was something Raven never thought she would see from her leader.

"Me? I messed up nothing! You got in my way!" Cyborg shouted, throwing his arms up for emphasis before assuming a position similar to his shorter counterpart.

"You were too far forward and Cinderblock got away because of it!" Robin glared, pointing a finger at his friend.

"You sayin' this is my fault?" Cyborg exploded, glaring back down at the Boy Wonder.

"You want me to say it again?" Robin countered. The two scowled at each other, lightening palpable in the air. Starfire put herself between the two before someone could throw a punch.

"Stop!" She ordered. Raven sighed at her optimism. When people argued, nothing from the outside would be able to calm them down. It was moments like this that made Raven surprised to see her teammate so excited to fight villains when she couldn't even stand her friends shouting. "No more mean talking!"

With a huff, both boy's turned their backs to the other.

"Yeah," Beast Boy agreed, and Raven raised one eyebrow. Beast Boy was the most irritating, annoying member of the team. Was he finally deciding to mature now? "If you two are gunna fight, we need time to sell tickets!"

She shouldn't have hoped for much.

Raven rolled her eyes, amazed that she would have to be the one to stop this nonsense.

"Cinderblock escaped," she stated, removing her hood. People listened to her more often when her hood was down. "No amount of yelling can change that. So stop acting like _idiots—_" Her eyes narrowed and she frowned disapprovingly at both of them "—and let's go home."

The two boys looked at each other once, snorted like bulls, and then stormed off in opposite directions. Raven watched Cyborg leave with, wondering why people had to be so stupid. This was why she was glad she did not have any emotions; things like petty arguments never happened that way. At least she felt their anger diminish a bit. Maybe there was hope that they could just _shut up_.

"Loser," Robin muttered.

"Jerk," Cyborg threw out at that exact same time.

She had to stop hoping for simple pleasures.

"_What did you say?_" They both screamed in at the same time. Their anger increased tenfold now, giving Raven just a slight headache.

"You got a problem, _Tin Man_?" Robin teased.

"Yeah! It's four feet tall and smells like cheap hair gel!" Cyborg cornered swiftly, and Robin fumed at how his height was criticized.

"Well you're an oversized klutz and your feet smell like motor oil!"

"You're bossy, you're rude, you got _no_ taste in music—!"

Raven and Starfire watched in bewilderment while Beast Boy looked on the verge of breaking down. Their yelling was adding on to her headache, making the back of her skull throb.

"I don't even know why you're on this team!" Robin accused, and all three onlookers' eyes went wide. Beast Boy couldn't really believe that he had went there. Tension was thick, and no one seemed to think it was possible that Robin had said what he just had.

"That makes two of us!" Cyborg spat. "_I_ _quit!_"

Now Robin went silent, mouth open in shock. Raven wished he was bluffing, but the sureness of his answer was definite. She could taste it.

Beast Boy, meanwhile, was completely floored. Cyborg was his best friend. He couldn't imagine life on the team without him. They had all finally become a family, his new family. He couldn't leave, he couldn't leave the team, he couldn't leave _him_. Six weeks! He couldn't...

He couldn't imagine what the Teen Titans would be like with no Cyborg to laugh at his lame jokes or shove him while they played video games or come up with various nicknames. Who would wake everyone up early every Wednesday to cook pancakes and bacon-who would he shout with over the smell of cooked meat in the air? Cyborg was like his older brother!

Even as he thought all of this, he stayed silent. Nothing he could have said would have made Cyborg take back his words. He may have thought of Cyborg as an older brother, but now, who knew if Cyborg returned the brotherly love?

They all watched as Cyborg turned his back and stomped out of the room, leaving them all to wonder what had just happened silently.

_..._

_"Hey, this is Cyborg. I'm either in the gym, playing game station, or kicking bad guy butt._

_Leave a message."_

Beep.

Beast Boy groaned. This had to be the seventeenth message he'd left this morning. He was pacing in the Titans living room, phone pressed to one of his ears. Starfire was stirring some kind of concoction at the kitchen counter, and Beast Boy wondered vaguely what it could be for. Raven was also there, watching a wall full of blinking buttons and lights that Beast Boy didn't care about.

Beast Boy heard the muffled sound of Starfire's spoon stirring the substance within the pot and the shift of Ravens feet. Thankfully, the effect of Cyborg's sonic cannon hadn't damaged his ears permanently. He shuddered at the thought of having regular human senses for the rest of his life.

"Hell_o_, Cy! Pick up! C'mon Cy, pick up!"

Raven glanced back at the agitated little green boy before returning to her search.

"I know you're there, Cy! The phones built into your arm."

He stopped pacing and scowled, clicking the "end" button on the phone and dropping it onto the table angrily. This totally sucked. Not only was Cyborg mad at Robin, not only had Cyborg quit the team, but now he wouldn't even talk to him! This was so totally frustrating!

"Taste," Starfire said innocently, and before Beast Boy could even think of what was going on, she shoved a spoon full of the batter-like substance into his mouth.

It tasted like a combination of glue, onions, and rotten cheese. Beast Boy gagged on it for a little bit, unable to swallow the foul food. His eyes started to tear up, and the muscles in his throat convulsed. He wanted to spit the gunk onto the carpet then brush his teeth for a few hours. It was the most disgusting thing he had ever tasted.

But Starfire was watching him with such a hopeful look. Her eyes were so pretty, so wide and green...

Grimacing, he swallowed, using all of his willpower to keep it down. Oh, God, he could feel the crap slide down his throat. He would have rather eaten live-worms.

"It's...good, Star," he coughed, clutching his chest. He pasted a fake smile on his face, pretending that it was the most delicious of all food.

"Oh, no!" She cried, and the shape-shifter quickly tried to back-peddle. "It is not meant to taste good!"

"No, no! I meant, um," he tried to make up for his mistake, "that is was the nastiest thing I've ever tasted!" At least he didn't have to lie about that.

Starfire sniffled, staring at him with huge, teary eyes and a small pout. "Truth?"

Beast Boy nodded his head vigorously. "Yeah, seriously! It tasted like Cream of Toenail!"

Beast Boy would have chugged the entire pot in an instant just to see her expression brighten up like that again-ugh, well, maybe not all of it.

Rubbing his stomach to keep from puking—he hoped it looked more like a sign of contentment than sickness—he asked, "What, uh, what _was_ that?"

"The Pudding of Sadness," Starfire explained happily without seeming to notice the gruffness of Beast Boys' voice. "It is what the people of my planet eat when bad things happen."

Starfire tasted a spoonful of it herself. She shuddered violently after swallowing it, but held the pot tightly, as if Beast Boy might steal it for himself.

Ha, she wouldn't have to worry about that.

Starfire floated over to Raven, who was pressing buttons every few seconds. "Try; the displeasing taste will ease your troubled mind."

Raven thought that she might force it into her mouth like she had with Beast Boy (who's disgust she could still sense. How stupid people acted when they were in love!) but didn't think that anything could be as bad as the constant flavor of happiness Starfire constantly emitted.

"My mind is never troubled," she lied. "People come, people go. It's pointless to worry about Cyborg." This was another stupid lie. She was worried about her teammate just as much as everyone else was, but she couldn't feel something like that. She couldn't succumb to her emotions. As long as she didn't think about Cyborg, didn't think about the loud robot that brightened up the room when he entered it, didn't think about how angry he had been with Robin, didn't think of where he might be now that he wasn't here anymore...

Somehow, something must have happened, because she heard the screens behind her crack and Starfire began to look at her funny.

"What?" She looked from Starfire to Beast Boy, who had managed a cocky smile. Oh, how she hated that smile, with that one stupid tooth jutting out.

"Your hair went _whoosh_ and you destroyed all those screens."

Raven opened her mouth to say that he was an idiot, that he didn't know what he was talking about, she couldn't do something like that without knowing, but knew he was right. So instead she put up her hood and went for a sarcastic remark to take the attention off of her.

"_Whoosh_?" She said with a roll of her eyes. Beast Boy nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, _whoosh_." Raven sighed at his stupidity. What was it with him and his constant jokes, anyway? He was always trying to be funny, but never was able to achieve it. He was such an odd character, Beast Boy.

He sighed and looked at the phone. "I'm calling Cy one more time today."

Raven watched him dial and pace once more. She actually felt pity for him-not that she would ever say that out loud. He was upset and angry that his best friend didn't even want to talk to him anymore, but everyone was feeling that way lately. Why was it just Beast Boy that she felt bad for?

Starfire said something about bringing some of her Pudding of Sadness up to Robin, and Raven nodded to her without even hearing anything she had said. She turned to go to her room to meditate, the doors swishing open as she stepped in front of them.

The last thing she heard before the doors cut everything from the room off was Beast Boy talking to an automated voice message again.

"Cy, please—"

_..._

_"—Please come back. We all need you. This team isn't a team without all of us together. So...Bye, then."_

Beep.

Cyborg sighed, pressing a few buttons on his arm. He hadn't answered any calls in the past two days. He was still kind of miffed at Robin, yeah, but now the only thing that was holding him back was pride. He couldn't come running back after storming away like a child.

It killed him to ignore the rest of the team. Beast Boy, especially. He was maybe a year or so younger, he couldn't tell, but they were already so close. He had left him thirty-two messages begging him to at least answer the phone. But Cyborg just couldn't find it in him to tell Beast Boy he wasn't coming back.

But maybe he would. Maybe he would swallow his stupid pride and come back to the team who needed him-leaving that message sure took a lot of guts. And, besides, he wasn't all that angry at Robin anymore, not after that.

Robin was right. The team wasn't a team without all of them together.

...

The rest of the week went by at a painfully slow rate. Robin went about sulking, and Starfire forced her pudding onto anyone within spitting distance. Raven was happy that she still hadn't tried anything with her-yet. Robin's sadness and guilt tasted like pencil lead to her, and Beast Boy's desperation tasted even worse. The entire Tower seemed downcast now that Cyborg was gone.

She had been reading in her room when the siren went off. She dropped her book and ran to the living room to see what was going on. Beast Boy and Starfire were already there, looking at the holographic map with blinking dots on it. Robin soon followed, apprehension smothering his sadness. "Cinderblock strikes again?" the Boy Wonder asked breathlessly.

"We wish," Beast Boy said grimly. _Speak for yourself_, Raven wanted to snap—she didn't know why she felt so irritable lately. It couldn't have been because of the mechanical Titans' leaving, could it?—but she remained silent, lifting her hood.

Robin glanced at the map and memorized the street signs and coordinates. "Titans, move!" he ordered.

Beast Boy nodded once and transformed into a bird. The transformation hit him hard, and he bit his tongue to keep from groaning in pleasure. He loved the feeling of transforming, the pop of his bones and the light-headed feeling he would get right before it was finished. He had managed to narrow his time of transformation to less than a second, but still, he enjoyed the short feeling it left him with. He wondered if any of the other Titans enjoyed their powers as much as he did.

Starfire lifted Robin from under the arms and began to float upwards, and Raven began to hover herself. Then, they were off.

It's a toxic waste dump, Beast Boy realized when they reached the area the blinking dot thingies had been on. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the smell about a mile away; he thought of how lucky everyone else was for not having to inhale the horrid scent. It was the most disgusting thing he had ever had the misfortune of smelling. Rotten fish, human waste, stomach vomit, acid.

Maybe he didn't enjoy his powers _so_ much.

"Ugh, it smells like my room!" he moaned, his voice distorted with a hand over his nose. Raven sniffed the air.

"I don't smell anything," she said dryly. Beast Boy rolled his eyes and saw her that her face flashed an indignant anger before blanking completely. Why did she do that? Why not show emotion, like normal people?

"Hello? Hyper-sensitive sense of smell, anyone?" He pointed to his nose but immediately made a gagging sound and clasped a hand firmly over his face once again. Raven rolled her eyes this time.

When the four entered the waste dump it was already nighttime, the sky darkening. The full moon was out, altering the appearance of things beneath its eerie light, lengthening shadows. What Beast Boy saw then almost made him wet himself.

_We so cannot do this without Cyborg._

Standing in front of a conveyor belt was a blob of monster-shaped purple goo. It was over ten feet tall, stealing cans of acid and slurping it down shamelessly as if they were a bottle of Dr. Snepper. With every can it chugged it grew another ten feet. Beast Boy felt like he was going to be sick, and thought that if it was possible, his face would have turned an even darker shade of green.

Mercifully, Starfire ended the chug-fest by blasting the end of one can off. The green liquid poured out of the back and the monster looked through the hole, confused. It used the can as a telescope and stared around until it spotted the four Titans standing in the entrance. As always, Robin had to deliver a snappy punch line before kicking the snot out of the villain.

"That stuff _can't_ be good for you."

Ugh, how did he come up with those witty remarks on the spot like that?

The giant goo-man threw the empty can aside and burped loudly, shaking the foundation of the factory.

Beast Boy smiled, feeling respect for the freaky thing. It may have been one ton of evil, but it could belch with the best of them. "Nice one!"

Robin made a dash towards it, and it spit out purple-colored gunk at him like bullets. Uck. Beast Boy would hate to get hit with one of those. Evading the bullets by cartwheeling away, Robin landed prissily on his feet.

"Star, let 'im have it!"

As instructed, a star bolt flew from her hands and went right through the goo-man.

_Literally_. It actually went _right through him_, leaving a gaping hole in his stomach.

Starfire gasped, "Did I let him have too much?"

As if answering her, the hole regenerated, and the goo-man (who Beast Boy thought was more of a plasmatic-being. Some kind of...plasmas.) shot a gigantic glob of his purple crap at Starfire and Raven. Raven could only gape at the oncoming attack, stupefied.

The gunk landed on her like a tub of sticky clay, and smelled worse than the entire toxic waste dump put together. She felt like she was suffocating, like she was breathing the goo into her lungs. She was dying, she had to be, it was seeping into her nostrils, the smell was so horrible, how could she die now—

Starfire pulled herself free first, then heaved Raven back out of the strange substance. Raven gasped in a large amount of air, secretly grateful she hadn't died in the most humiliating manner. Starfire looked down at herself and moaned. "Ugh, I feel like the underside of a Zornion Muck Beetle."

Raven stood up as well, returning to her normal frame of mind, and frowned; sludge dripping from her hair. That was so strange. She had the most constricting feeling in her chest moments before. Had she been...panicking? "Tell me about it."

"Dude!" Beast Boy yelled as he ran away from Plasmas as fast as his legs would take him. "I am not on the menu—_Ah!"_

Plasmas' gooey fist landed only inched from where he had been standing and he pushed himself to run farther. Faster, faster, can't get squished. C'mon, Beast Boy, _move_. Plasmas made a distressed gurgling noise and Beast Boy screamed again.

Robin tossed one of his special bird-a-rangs, and he began to tie a rope around Plasmas' legs. Saved, Beast Boy thought happily Robin jerked his head at Plasmas, signaling a take-down was about to occur.

"Maybe the best way to take you down," Robin grunted, and Beast Boy prepared himself to change, willing the stretching of his flesh into a bigger, more dangerous shape, "is to tie you up!"

_WHAM!_

Beast Boy charged at Plasmas in rhino form, knocking him over flat on his back. Raven hovered over him watchfully as Starfire began to bend metal beams to use as restraints. For good measure, the psychic girl twisted a few around his hulking shape, as well.

Plasmas shrieked inhumanely, grinding on Beast Boys' senses. The sound left the hair on the back of his neck upright, and his bones hollow.

"We did it!" Starfire cheered, so happy she hugged her green teammate. Beast Boy froze, wide-eyed, at the physical contact. Touching. She was touching him. She was hugging him. And he was just standing there like a _dork_! Before he could even react, hug her in return, or enjoy the soft smell of her strawberry-shampoo and the tangy scent of sweat after a battle, she retracted, bouncing joyfully.

Gah! He was such a spas!

"Nice work, team," Robin agreed. Beast Boy cleared his throat, finding his voice.

"Yeah, didn't think we would pull it off without—OW!" Beast Boy grunted, sharply elbowed by Raven. She glared at him, and in turn, he scowled back, muscles tightening. Animal instincts from inside of his mind barked and screeched wildly at her challenge of superiority, but he realized why she had cut him off in the first place. And was slightly amazed that she actually cared about Robin's feelings instead of just letting him continue on.

_Idiotidiotidiot!_

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and giggled, causing her glare to turn neutral again. He had been upset about Cyborg's leaving, but Robin still hadn't been able to come to terms with it; he was probably blaming himself. Beast Boy bringing up the missing Cyborg while he was still grieving wasn't the best of choices.

"We finished just in time," Robin stated, snapping his communicator shut. "Cinderblock's been spotted downtown. C'mon!" The four turned to leave when Beast Boy noticed the gurgling sound behind them get louder.

"Huh?"

He turned around to see Plasmas bloating up so that the beams were sinking into his bubbling body. The beast liquefied itself, only to reform into five separate mini-monsters. Once they were fully-formed, they proceeded to make clicking sounds to each other, as if communicating.

"Uh…heads up," Beast Boy muttered, staring at the grotesque decapitated, misshapen head leading the pack. The mini-Plasmas' rushed them, and the four superheroes did the only thing they could do to retaliate.

They ran.

Robin threw open the nearby doors open, almost falling flat on his face, and the four Titans barricaded the doors. The teens struggled to keep the doors shut as the monsters from the other side threw themselves at it one at a time. They would make it in eventually, he realized. They would make it through the doorway, and there was no way they could win without a fifth Titan to fight with them. Beast Boy was scared _out of his mind_.

"Four against five—not good odds." He hoped no one else noticed the fear that caused his voice to shake, that it was merely exhaustion setting in.

"Forget the odds; we need a plan," Robin told him in his normally oh-so-commanding voice. Beast Boys eyes were wide with fear and adrenaline.

The monsters started banging on the door harder, and Beast Boy changed his position from having his shoulder against the door to pushing them closed with his hands. His eyebrows furrowed with concentration and the door opened up a crack, allowing a disgusting blob to work its way through. Starfire screamed as the tendril grew longer. Beast Boy peeked through the crack and saw the monsters face grinning at him, still gurgling and clicking. He blanched, hollow inside. He could see some kind of sadistic pleasure in its sulfuric eyes.

"Titans, separate!" Robin ordered, and the four scrambled into different direction just as the doors were thrown open. Beast Boy ran for a few seconds, arms pumping, before realizing that he would be faster as a cheetah. With a thought, he was in cat form now, his paws pounding down on the concrete as he ran. He heard Starfire let loose a barrage of star bolts and ran harder.

He realized without turning around that he was being followed; he could feel its presence behind him. One of the mini-Plasmas' was chasing him, chattering and clicking madly. A tendril reached out and in a flash it was wrapped around Beast Boy, who snarled as his heart beat picked up. He transformed into a gorilla and the tendril exploded around the giant animal. He was about to bang on his chest triumphantly when the mini-Plasmas lunged on top of him.

As he tangled with the smelly goo-ball he hoped that his teammates were better off than him.

...

Raven was happy for one of the many times in her life that she could fly.

One of the squid-like Plasma monsters was chasing her with unnatural speed and grace for a shapeless blob. As she sped down the hall full of boilers and other heavy metal containers, she forced up her psychic powers to help her. Her body felt numb, quickly losing all feeling as magic surged through her being. There was a sudden constricting pain in her chest as it passed through her heart, but it passed after a moment of breathlessness; this happened every time she did not meditate before using her powers so forcefully.

Concentrate. Restrain. Become the hallway.

Concentrate. Restrain. Become the hallway.

The entire hallway was bathed in the eerie black aura and she loosened the screws and bolts on everything she passed with her mind. One after one they fell, sadly missing the monster as it ducked and squirmed before disappearing somewhere. Raven looked back and was delighted to see that it was no longer behind her.

It was in front of her now.

Just as she turned her head back to see where she was going, the squid materialized in her path. She gasped and plowed straight into it. Oh, Azar, _how_ had it managed that?

Raven squeezed her eyes and raised her arms in front of her face as she went through it speedily. It made a squelching noise and shrieked, but she managed to make it through virtually unharmed. She crinkled her nose at the smell, which surrounded her.

How must the others be fairing, she wondered, shaking off a lump of goop from her cloak. Robin was probably doing fine; Starfire should have been muddling by, as well. All that left was...

_Beast Boy_.

She frowned and threw the squid off of her. He was probably fine-but she couldn't help but wonder. He could be incompetent and immature sometimes. And what if he needed someone to save him again?

Thinking that made her angrier, and she clawed at the squid with all of her pent-up rage. Half because she didn't want to be worried, half because she had allowed herself to get so angry about it.

Subconsciously, she began flying closer and closer to the area where she sensed he was fighting. He was struggling now, which made her fly even faster—which then made her slow down upon realizing her haste. She was leading the squid to her friends, yes, but she needed to see if Beast Boy needed her help-if her _team_ needed her help.

She had to stop this incessant worrying over that idiotic green-skinned moron. Why did it even matter, anyway? He should learn to fight his own battles, protect himself.

Finally Beast Boy came into view. He was in the form of a growling mountain lion, pouncing at the purple little beast. With a flick of his wrist he sliced it in half, giving himself a moment to catch his breath. He morphed back to human form and bent over, hands on knees. Raven stopped flying for a moment and watched him.

Wonderful, he was okay. She had proved it to herself, so she could stop acting like a-

Beast Boys gaze met hers and saw sheer terror lighting his expression; his already wide eyes growing twice as large. She felt a surge of pure animalistic fear come from him, something deeper that anything from his conscious psyche. This felt...stronger, more overpowering than any normal human emotion. She had tasted fear, tasted the acidic sting of terror. This feeling she was sensing within the changeling was even more intense than that; which confused her, for only a moment. Then the reason clicked in her mind. She twisted around before he even started to scream

"_Raven_!" He yelled to her with one arm outstretched. She raised one eyebrow in confusion and turned her head. Then her mouth dropped, shock registering on a face that normally bore no emotion but apathetic. The plamsa-squid had thrown itself towards her head, ready to clamp its slimy tendrils around and suffocate her. She didn't have enough time to react; calling upon her powers to fly before had tired her, and it would take several seconds before she could defend herself. Several seconds too slowly.

She was going to die. Raven turned her head away and threw her arms up, in a last ditch attempt at guarding herself. She held her breath and waited.

Beast Boy was overcome with the primal sense of protection. Everything else blurred, all of his senses started to work overtime, and voices inside of his head screamed to save Raven. She was a member of his pack, his family, and he could not stand by while she was being threatened. Not even a second after she had thrown up her arms, he burst out running. There was no thought involved, no memory of her rudeness this current morning. He had to save her, no matter what his instincts said. He didn't care that she as scary, didn't care that she didn't even like him, didn't care that he knew nothing about her and always felt on edge with her around.

Right now, every fiber of his being was telling him that _she needed him_.

Something tackled Raven to the ground, as the plasma-squid shrieked angrily as it soared over her head. She cried as the wind was knocked out of her. She opened one eye a crack to see what had thrown her out of the way, and was completely dumbfounded.

Beast Boy was lying on top of her.

Raven _never_ thought this would have happened. Without even realizing how helpless she must have appeared, she looked up at him with wide eyes-this was just so shocking. For a short moment, all of her emotional walls dropped and she let surprise flit across her face. Beast Boy looked back down at her and grinned, exhausted and proud. His small chest heaved as he breathed heavily onto her face, nostrils flaring. She could feel his rapid heartbeat bang against her chest.

He had...saved her. All this time, she had thought he was the one in need of saving. All this time, she had thought that he was unable to protect himself. All this time, she had thought he was a weak, dead weight to the team. And meanwhile, here he was, throwing himself in danger in order to protect _her._

She felt so foolish. They were only teammates in the loosest sense of the word, and he didn't even stop to consider what the consequences of blocking the squid might have been. She was a hypocrite, and the realization made her face flood with shame.

"Guess that makes us even now," Beast Boy mocked cheerfully as he slid from on top of her. She didn't notice that she had taken his hand until he hefted her up.

Raven blinked twice, dazed. "Oh, um, yes. I suppose it does." She felt him want her to return the smile but her face remained passive, the unexpected heat fading. If she started smiling now, it would keep happening, and she did _not_ want that.

_Oh, no._

Beast Boy was still facing towards her, grinning with the knowledge that he had successfully saved a life.

Before she could so much as turn around, one of the slime-creatures threw itself at Beast Boy, who yelped in pain.

"Beast—!" Raven couldn't finish her sentence before the squid catapulted itself at her for a second time.

Everything went dark.

...

There was a loud explosion, so bright that Beast Boy could see it through the opaque muck that surrounded him. The remains of the plasma-squid encasing his head was blown off of him and he was on the floor, covered in the goop. He glanced around and saw that Raven and Starfire were also free-how long had he been inside that thing?

He picked himself up so that he was standing on his knees, frowning. This day was a total downer.

Somewhere on the floor, a bald man in a black Speedo snored peacefully as if he hadn't just been a giant slime dude.

Raven covered her nose. "You were right, Beast Boy."

His ears perked up. Raven was instigating a conversation? Didn't she hate his guts, despite that he had saved her life in return. He said curiously, "I always am, but I'd like to know about what this time."

Ignoring his remark, Raven answered matter-o-factually, "It _does_ smell like your room."

His smile fell. He thought that she would at least acknowledge his bravery. She always went around acting like he didn't do anything, and when he finally did...Well, he ended up bested by that thing anyway, so what did it matter? At least they had been saved by-

By who?

"What _reeks?_" someone groaned. Someone with a deep voice with a city drawl.

Someone who grinned down at his friends, lowering his arm-canon so it was no longer aimed at them. Someone whose blinking red eye and shiny metal exterior never looked so comforting.

"_Cyborg!_" Beast Boy jumped onto his friend, clinging to him like a toddler to his guardians' leg. Cyborg laughed, and everything about his laugh brought emotions to surface form inside of Beast Boy. All the hurt, all the missing, all the emptiness of the Tower for the past two days came rushing back to the shape-changer, and a frown formed on his face. He ducked his head to keep his friend from seeing his face, to keep Cy from seeing how his eyes were starting to get wet.

Jeez, man up! He thought to himself. Cyborg would make fun of him for weeks if he saw how upset he was. Raven would still think that he was a helpless baby. And, if Starfire saw...

He stomped down any feeling of sadness or hurt-he was good at that-and let the positive emotions he was feeling shine through. Cyborg was back, Cyborg was back, Cyborg was back. They were a team again! His face stung, he was smiling so hard. It was so unbelievable how his life had gone from horrible to back on track in so quickly his head spun.

"I knew y'all loved me," Cyborg smirked, shaking the smaller of the two off. Beast Boy loosened his grip and allowed himself to plop back onto the floor, a bit embarrassed.

"Speak for yourself," Raven replied, wiping slime off of her face. She was trying to seem indifferent, but even Beast Boy could tell that she was glad to see the mecha-man again. She hesitated, before adding, "Welcome back."

The African-American Titan opened his mouth to speak, perhaps to mention something about how he missed Raven the most, just to irritate her, when Starfire rocketed into him. Hard.

He went reeling backwards, struggling to maintain his balance. "Woah! Star!" He grunted. She wrapped her arms around his torso, crushing him in an enormous bear hug. Raven winced beside Beast Boy, as if she could feel his pain.

Beast Boy felt a twang of jealousy, even though the hug meant nothing to either Starfire or Cyborg. He had molested his leg, for the love of God! It wasn't like _he_ had any romantic connection towards Cyborg. Yet, he couldn't help how their closeness made him feel like a loser, sitting in a puddle of smelly goop next to Raven. Starfire never hugged him like that.

Ugh, stop it, he scolded. Now you're acting like a _real_ loser.

"You have returned!" Starfire squealed, her beautiful face brightening the dank room. Even with her hair gunked up with slime and tangled up in knots, it still retained the vibrant color of deep-red that complimented her sparkling green eyes. She was so pretty, Beast Boy thought, staring at her unashamedly.

At least, until he noticed Raven giving him an odd look-to which he whipped his head away and found an interest in the floor. He could feel the blood rushing through his cheeks. Raven hadn't seen him looking, had she? Raven couldn't know, could she?

"Hey," Beast Boy cleared his throat, praying that Raven had just thought he was daydreaming in Starfire's general direction. Praying that she didn't think he was gawking at her alien beauty. Prayed that if she did know, she wouldn't say anything. "Where's Robin?"

"Just called the precinct," their leader announced, closing his communicator with a snap. He stood in the doorway, looking more relaxed then Beast Boy had seen him in days. The masked sixteen-year-old watched his team silently for a moment, then nodded his head outside, where sirens could be heard in the distance.

Two minutes later, a collection of white vans came to a halt outside of the crumbling building. A balding man with white pants and a black T-shirt jogged up to the group of heroes, looking nervous. "We heard that you have a—"

"In there," Robin answered, jerking a thumb behind him. "He's asleep now."

The man shook his head. "I'm really sorry about this. He wasn't supposed to escape."

A group of men dressed similarly to the balding man came from the cars, pouring out onto the concrete. They began to clean the area of all plasma residue, carrying the snoozing form into a rather large van. Beast Boy sighed and looked around.

The five Titans stood outside the waste dump, reunited once again. Plasmas had been defeated, and his human form was being taken back to a lab at this very moment. All was right.

Robin glanced at Cyborg apprehensively. "Look, uh, sorry about—f"

"Yeah," Cyborg smiled, knowing that his ex-ex-friend was never good with apologies.

"So, are we cool?" Robin asked.

"Frosty," Cyborg agreed, raising one fist to him. Robin grinned and bumped his gloved fist to his friends' metal one.

At least now Raven didn't have to taste all the stupid sad emotions. "You made up!" Starfire announced, bouncing up and down. Raven forced herself not to groan in disgust when she saw Beast Boy staring at her chest-that boy was disgusting sometimes. All she could taste from him was lust. "I wish to initiate a 'group hug'."

Raven rolled her eyes at her teammate. Like she'd ever want to hug anyone, especially Starfire. She seemed pleasant, but she had the potential to snap her spine. "Pass," she answered blandly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Warm fuzzies all around," Beast Boy half-heartedly congratulated hastily. He was trying to put up a tough front but she knew that he was secretly overjoyed that Cyborg had come back. And denying a hug from Starfire must have really been tough for him. "But we still gotta catch Cinderblock!"

Raven was stunned that he was acting so maturely about the situation. She expected him to go over and cling to his friends' leg (again). Maybe she had been wrong about him, in more ways than one, after all.

"No we don't," Cyborg said surely. "Thought I'd bring a present, 'case you were still mad." He raised an arm up to show Cinderblock being hefted away by a crane, a street sign curled securely over his arms, restraining him. Cinderblock grumbled incoherently.

Robin smirked. "Thanks—but there is one thing that's still bothering me." Raven, Beast Boy and Starfire looked at the back of their leader in shock. "Breaking into jail…distracting us with Plasmas…the whole thing sounds a little too smart for Cinderblock."

"I've been thinkin' the same thing," Cyborg agreed. Simultaneously, both Starfire and Beast Boy let out a sigh of relief. At least no one was going to be arguing.

"Someone must have been pulling the strings…" Robin said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But who?"

"Well whoever they are, they're no match for the Teen Titans," Cyborg boasted.

"I heard that!" Robin laughed, high-fiving the robotic teen. The Titans started on their way home tiredly, when Raven pulled Beast Boy away from the group and onto the side.

"Hey—!" Raven slapped a hand over his mouth. He was overcome with a horrible wave of fear. What was she going to do? Kill him, eat him, hurt him in anyway? Call him out for ogling Star before?He had no idea what was going through her mind, her eyes devoid of any sign of emotion. Her hands smelled vaguely like Plasmas after the battle. She raised a finger to her lips indicating that he needed to stay quiet. Slowly, Beast Boy nodded his head and Raven removed her hand.

"What up?"

"Look," she began, an hand on his shoulder. He winced at the pressure she applied, and she loosened her grip some. "I'm not really used to doing this kind of thing…I don't enjoy expressing myself." She looked over his head instead of in his eyes. Beast Boy felt his heart pick up again. Showing emotions? What was she going to do? _Hug_ _him? _His body locked itself in place.

"I just wanted to thank you for saving me before," she said slowly, as if he were a stupid child. "And I am sorry."

Beast Boy blinked. "Um, what now?"

Raven frowned. "I apologized to you, okay? I was wrong about you. I thought you weren't able to handle yourself. But..." She looked away. "After today, I was proven incorrect." She snapped her gaze back to his face.

"If you tell anyone, I will _skin you alive_." Her threat was empty-she would never seriously hurt a team member-but he had gotten the message. She could taste his fear, his uncertainty as to whether she was kidding or not.

"Oh, er, no biggie. We're teammates; it's what we're supposed to do." He flashed another grin and she rolled her eyes. They turned to catch up with the rest of their friends when Raven started to ask something.

"Why do you..." She trailed off.

_Why do you feel so connected to these people?_

_Why do you let us all think you are useless?_

_Why do you protect other people, but endanger yourself?_

_Why do you go about fancying Starfire when you know she doesn't like you back?_

_Why do you bother?_

He looked at her, and she shook her head, messy purple hair shaking with it. "It's nothing."

They walked home quietly; the silence, this time, was comforting.


	2. Sisters

Beast Boy stuck his tongue out of his mouth as he concentrated on not being eaten alive.

The changeling was sitting upside-down on the titans couch with a game station controller resting in his hands. He was staring at the television screen at an odd angle that was making his neck cramp, but he was too lazy to adjust himself to be in a more comfortable position. Without even thinking much of it, his fingers twitched at all the right times to make his character jump, duck, and hack wildly with its sword.

_The Sword of Ember_, to be exact, which took almost 100,000 points to get and about one week of his time to make it that far. Sure, Cyborg may have had a bunch of cheat codes that got him force fields and extra health points, but not Beast Boy. He played fairly---well, as fairly as you could play with a giant sword strapped to the back of your character that was as tall as he was.

The flesh eating zombies were punching through the rotten-wooded door, their arms twisted in directions no joint should ever turn. From outside, a zombie threw one of those twisty-chairs through one of the stain glass windows, painted glass shattering everywhere. Finally they began crawling in through the holes in the walls, some missing eyes, some with grayish skin hanging of their bones.

The inhuman scream of a zombie pierced through his eardrums as he slayed The Sword of Ember through a group of the living dead coming to eat his flesh. Blood sprayed over the screen as one of them clawed at his face, and for a moment the characters vision pulsed red. Then half of the screen blanked out.

Great, he'd lost an eye.

Cyborg's character was beside him, chopping away with full HP.

He eyed his health bar and frowned at the warning lights flashing around it. He was almost dead, shit. If only he could just climb up and get higher elevation over---

"_AUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!"_ His character moaned as zombies ripped him apart and began to feast on him. The end of the world theme music played in the background for a moment before the words GAME OVER---YOU FAIL----ALL OF HUMANITY HAD SUCCUMBED TO THE UNDEAD SCUMB.

Yeah, that's a pick-me-up right after you lose at level ninety nine. _Ninety nine_. He had almost beaten Cyborg's high score! Ugh!

"Booyah, baby!" Cyborg screamed at the maximum volume of his artificial lungs. Beast Boy scoffed and dropped the control next to his head.

"Dude, that was so fixed! You hacked the game, didn't you man?" Beast Boy accused, narrowing his eyes at the robot currently doing a victory dance in front of the room. Cyborg momentarily stopped gloating to stare at Beast Boy with fake, wide-eyed innocence.

"Me? BB, why would ya say somethin' so horrible 'bout me?" he asked, blinking his only real eye. Then the corners of his mouth twisted into a smirk.

"Dude!" Beast Boy screamed, still upside-down.

Cyborg laughed, wiping the corners of his eyes. "Man, you shoulda' seen your face! Nah, I never screwed with the game---'sides, I wouldn't need to cheat to beat _you_. I mean, _Raven _can pro'lly beat you."

Beast Boy sighed. "Well, as long as you didn't---DUDE!" He yelled again once he realized what his cybernetic friend had implied. "I just had a bad run," he whined.

"Yeah, for the past two days," Cyborg retorted. Beast Boy crossed his arms and snorted. He didn't need to hear this. "So what do you wanna do now?" He asked, changing the subject before Cyborg would resume his "in-your-face" dance.

Cyborg's left eye flashed and the whiz of buzzing circuits was heard before he replied, "It's seven-thirty. Whad'a you wanna do?"

Beast Boy let his arms hang off the couch and thought for a second.

And thought.

And thought.

When and idea finally hit him, he jumped off of the couch with excitement. Unfortunately for him, his foot caught on the edge of the sofa and he tumbled to the floor behind it in a heap of twisted arms and legs. Raven stared up from her tea kettle in her spot in the kitchen, looked as if she was going to ask what happened, and then shook her head. Beast Boy quickly untangled himself and brushed dust off of his uniform. He didn't want to look like an idiot after all. Things like that just sort of _happened_ to him.

"I was thinking---"

"You can think? Maybe there is such a thing as miracles," Raven said between sips of her tea. Seriously, he thought, who drinks tea anymore?

Beast Boy shot her a dirty look before continuing.

"---That we should go out. There's a carnival in town this week, and tonight's the last night it'll be here." Beast Boy smiled triumphantly at his genius idea.

"Sure," Robin said from behind a newspaper, "we could all use a break."

"Oh, my first time at an Earth celebration! It sounds most enjoyable!" Starfire squealed from her seat next to Robin, jumping up and clapping her hands. Cyborg raised a fist straight up in the air and let loose a cheerful whoop.

_Four down, one to go._

Beast Boy looked at Raven expectantly. She may be creepy and have not one fun bone in her body, but no one could say not to---

"Fattening deep-fried foods, hazardous old rides, and cheap games that were designed to steal your money?" Raven said sarcastically, almost finishing Beast Boy's thought-sentence. _Weird…_He thought, scratching his head. "Yeah, as _fun _as that all sounds, I'd rather lay on a bed of rusty nails."

"Aw, c'mon Rae," Cyborg whined, and Raven glared at him once he used her loathed pet name.

"No."

"But---" Beast Boy started.

"No." She turned around to pour the rest of her tea down the drain, her appetite gone. She almost jumped when she felt something brush past her legs. She looked down and saw the adorable face of a kitten look up at her with the widest green eyes an animal that small had ever been created with. It meowed innocently at her and its whiskers twitched longingly. It rubbed against the side of her leg, green fur tickling her calf.

Raven raised one eyebrow at it and picked the strangely colored creature up with both hands. Its ears perked up and it meowed hopefully again. Raven may pretend to have no heart, but not even she could deny how completely cute this kitten was. And, damn it, if she wasn't a cat person. The sandpaper-like tongue of the kitten darted out and licked the side of her face and meowed once more for the full effect.

Raven sighed. "Fine, whatever." Suddenly the kitten transformed into a larger shape, and Raven was then holding a short green boy in her arms instead of a puffy little feline.

"Yeah! Yip--Ouch!" Beast Boy began to cheer when Raven found no more reason to be holding him and dumped him onto the kitchen floor. Beast Boy rubbed his backside before slowly getting up. Then he turned around and flashed one of his self-proclaimed award-winning smiles at the violet-haired girl. "I knew you'd never be able to resist my charms," he said, and his voice cracked in exactly all of the wrong places. Argh, _when _would his voice hit puberty? This was getting downright embarrassing!

Robin snickered from his side of the room and Raven rolled her eyes, throwing up her hood. "Yes, Beast Boy. Because all women are into green-skinned, pointy-eared, scrawny little elves." Beast Boy frowned when behind him both Robin and Cyborg bust out laughing.

"Shall we be going now, please?" Starfire asked, and Robin nodded his head, still chuckling.

Tch, Beast Boy thought.

And she says she has no sense of humor.

---

The smell of cotton candy and corndogs was heavy in the air when the five titans reached the carnival. Beast Boy breathed in the scent eagerly (not that he'd ever have one of those disgusting murder-meats on a stick--nuh-uh, not him, no siree,) but recognized the familiar scent at once. Memories of his last carnival experience came to mind.

Raven had sent the fortune tellers tent twenty feet in the air with her powers "by accident" and they hadn't been allowed back on the premises for the last five days the fair had been in town. Raven had then said that the fortune teller was just a bunch of blasphemy, setting a bad example for psychics everywhere and that any kind of event that would encourage such stupidity _should_ be blown up.

Well, hopefully nothing would explode this time.

"Wow, it's been a while…" Robin muttered, glancing every so often at the acrobats tent. Starfire's eyes were wide with wonder as she looked from one neon sign to the other, the bright lights of the carnival reflecting of her green orbs.

"I wish to ride the giant spinning circle!" She cried happily, floating an inch off of the ground. She clasped her hands together and gave Robin a lost puppy look that had definitely made the boy wonders heart melt into pudding.

"You mean the Ferris Wheel?" Robin asked in a bemused manner. Starfire nodded her head and pouted her lower lip. Robin shrugged. "Why not?" Starfire let out a shriek of happiness and grabbed Robins wrist, said boy proceeding to turn a light pink color. The alien girl dragged Robin through a crowd of people who looked once at the orange girl and decided not to look back. You never knew what you'd find at a carnival, Beast Boy marveled.

"While they make out on the Ferris Wheel," Cyborg grinned, "how 'bout we go win us some prizes?" Beast Boy raised one fist out and Cyborg willingly punched it. The two made their way through throngs of people and to the nearest game booth. Raven sighed and followed them, having nothing better to do then watch as Beast Boy (as usual) made a fool of himself. It could get quiet funny if he began to make a spectacle.

They went from racing games to whack-a-gopher---which Beast Boy refused to play because he claimed that it was "cruelty to animals"---and hadn't won one thing. Cyborg had even cheated by using his electronic eye to calculate different formulas to figure out how to win, and they _still_ hadn't even managed to get a cheap plastic doll.

"I swear Raven, I'll win you _something_," Beast Boy promised as he aimed his water gun into the clowns gaping mouth. Raven wondered what kind of twisted game forced children to shoot at a poor clowns head with awfully realistic guns, filled with ammo or not. Raven had opened her mouth to say that she didn't want a stupid stuffed animal from one of these dirty places, but decided that wouldn't stop the already determined Beast Boy even if she whacked him over the head.

A few minutes later, the sky started to fill with brightly colored fireworks illuminating the dark fair. The tents were basked in different colors, from red to orange. "Woah," Cyborg said.

"Dude…"Beast Boy agreed with an open mouth as he stared open at the sky. Raven wanted to add that they were just lighting off highly flammable boxes of explosives and that only idiots with short attention spans would find them "pretty" but she stopped short when she glanced up.

Right before the grand finale, the most dazzling yet of the fireworks came up. It shot through the sky with a fizzing fury, white hot, and with a crack, it exploded into what looked like millions of pieces. It was a combination of green and purple, colors that didn't normally look good together. But in the nighttime sky, with stars lying millions of light years behind the explosions of fireworks, they went together perfectly, brilliant to the eyes of everyone below.

After a moment of total awe, Raven tore her eyes away from the sky. "They're okay," she half-lied when she saw Beast Boy and Cyborg looking at her from the corners of their eyes.

The group finally decided that they would allow themselves to play one more game and then they would find Starfire and Robin. "Whether we have to tear them off of each other or not," Cyborg had said. Beast Boy had stopped in front of a ring toss station and put down a five dollar bill without consulting the other two before throwing the money away.

He was handed three different colored plastic rings. He chucked the first one blindly, hitting the wall and missing the bottle below completely. He threw the second one and it bounced off of the tops of the bottles, missing yet again. He threw the last one and missed once more. "Tough," the man inside the stand said without meaning it, and began to collect the rings.

Beast Boy groaned. "Aw, why didn't I get it?"

"The bottles are angled so that it isn't possible," Raven replied smartly. She glanced at the green boy from the corners of her eyes and saw that he was clutching his head and groaning. He had really wanted to win at least one game.

Raven sighed, and said, "Try it one more time."

Beast Boy stopped sulking long enough to look at her with a strange expression. "But didn't you just---?" Raven glared at him and he wordlessly put down another five dollars. The man grinned at his foolishness, the words "what a sucker this guy is" written clearly on his face. Beast Boy threw the first two and missed. When he was down to only one again, he gripped it in his hand tightly and stuck his tongue out as he concentrated.

_Gotta win this for Raven,_ she heard Beast Boy think absent mindedly.

She shut her eyes for a second. Today was one of those days where she desperately needed to meditate but never had the chance to. Now, without even wanting to, she was beginning to randomly tap in to peoples thoughts. She personally thought that it was an invasion of privacy, but there was nothing she could do. It would wear away eventually.

She hoped.

He swung his arm and let the red plastic ring fly from his finger tips, spinning like a flying saucer. Just as it was about to miss the bottle, Raven pushed it with her mind and tipped it off course, letting it gracefully glide into place through one of the bottles neck.

Beast Boy stared at it for a second, amazed, and then started to laugh at his luck. "Booyah!" Cyborg cheered, and Beast Boy high-fived him while replying with a victorious "Sweet!"

The man behind the counter looked even more shocked than Beast Boy had been, but he handed the changeling his prize nonetheless. "Told ya we'd win you a prize," Beast Boy said happily, handing Raven the giant stuffed chicken the guy over the counter had given him. Cyborg was smirking at him, but Beast Boy failed to notice. Raven tried her best to act annoyed as she leaned against the stand casually, arms crossed.

"A giant chicken," she stated dryly. "I must be the luckiest girl in the world." Well, at least Beast Boy had stopped feeling like a loser. Self-pity tasted almost worse than happiness.

"Titans!" Robin called as he landed in front of the three. "Trouble!" He was radiating waves of concern and worry. Something must have happened, Raven reasoned.

"Where's Starfire?" Cyborg asked with one furrowed eyebrow.

"That's the trouble." Robin broke out in a sprint, and Raven threw down the enormous stuffed poultry to follow. Robin led them to the edge of the pier, where two speeding lights were conflicting with each other. As they got closer, Beast Boy realized that it was Starfire, being chased by some squidy pod thingie.

"No more chasing now please," she screamed as a tentacle reached out to grab her. She flew closer to the titans until she passed through them, and the pod thingie followed like a heat-seeking missile.

"Who's her new best friend?" Beast Boy said sarcastically, and he could have sworn he heard Raven scoff.

"Don't know, but I can't wait to meet him." Robin punched his palm and took on the tone of an over-protective boyfriend. Starfire circled the Ferris Wheel before stopping behind her friends. The pod turned to follow again when Beast Boy jumped up towards it and changed into an alligator. He snapped his jaws at it but missed by inches.

From behind, Raven telekinetically lifted a hot dog stand and threw it at the pod. The pod flew through it, unfazed, and hotdogs and onions went every which way. Beast Boy cringed when one landed on his shoe.

As the pod passed Cyborg, the robot reached and grabbed the pod by the tentacles. He struggled to keep it in place while the pod struggled to keep moving forward. "Don't know what you said to make this thing mad, but it wouldn't hurt to apologize," Cyborg grunted with effort.

"I am…sorry?" Starfire said meekly, but nothing happened.

Cyborg huffed once more before the pod snapped free and went after Starfire again. Robin, playing the over-protective boyfriend role, snarled and snapped open his staff. Beast Boy doubted he'd ever let that thing hurt Starfire if he was within a ten-mile radius. "Yah!" He cried, swinging his staff mightily down onto the pod. It's engine seemed to fail because it began to plummet downwards and it splashed into the ocean below them.

Beast Boy leaned over the railing. "So, did we just win?"

To answer his question, with an explosion of water, the pod rocketed through the bottom of the pier and twenty feet into the air. It circled once more, and Robin immediately jumped into action. He leaped into the air and landed on the back of the pod. He muttered something about an off-switch that Beast Boy couldn't hear before punching straight through the surface and ripping out random live wires. The pod began to convulse and make noises signaling it was losing power when Robin jumped back on to the deck. The pod flew up into the air another hundred feet before imploding and finishing off the fireworks extravaganza with no one the wiser.

"Whatever that thing was, it can't hurt you now," Robin said to Starfire, slightly out of breath.

"But…why did it wish to hurt me at all?" Starfire wondered aloud.

Which was a very good question, Beast Boy thought to himself. He could have sworn that Raven had nodded in agreement to his thought, but he must have been tired from the fight. Having enough excitement for one night, the titans returned home.

---

Raven was going to vomit.

She honestly was going to throw up on her shoes if Starfire got any happier. The taste was so strong that she could almost _smell_ it. She had just proposed to recite the "The Poem of Gratitude, all 6000 verses." Her gratefulness was making her stomach heave.

"I see you haven't changed a bit," someone said from the couch, and all five titans turned to see who the voice belonged to. A girl that looked only a year or two older than Starfire was leaning against the back of the couch. She worse a silver plated outfit with a black tank top and a black skirt that looked similar to Starfire's. Even her hair resembled Starfire's, straight to a T and trailing down to her mid-back, but it was dyed a midnight black color that matched her shoes. Her eyes were what made her look really different. Opposite of Starfire's large green ones, this girls eyes were slanted and purple. "When we were little I was always saving Starfire," she explained a bit sheepishly.

She held out her arms, awaiting an embrace and laughed. Starfire screamed and ran over to hug the stranger. "Sister!" she cried, a smile matching her counterparts.

"Brought you a present," the stranger said silkily, dangling an emerald-colored gem stone in front of Starfire's face. Starfire gasped in astonishment.

"A Centari Moon Diamond? Where did you get---"

"On the Centari Moons, of course," the stranger interrupted. Wordlessly, she began to tie the gem around Starfire's neck, who was grinning ear to ear. "Oh look, it matches your eyes!" She observed, and beamed. As far as Raven could tell, she wasn't a threat.

"You must meet my friends!" Starfire said, and dragged the stranger over to the front of the room with enough strength to damage a normal human beings arm. "I wish to introduce my big sister---"

"Blackfire," the stranger, Starfire's sister, interrupted again. "And since Star said all about the titans in her transmissions, let me guess…" Blackfire trailed off, finger on her chin. "Cyborg," she said, pointing to the robotic teen.

Who else would that name belong to? Raven thought.

"Pleased to meet you, little lady," Cyborg greeted politely, holding out a hand for her to shake. Blackfire accepted it and easily crushed his fingers together as the metal whined in protest. "Little lady, _big_ handshake!" Cyborg rolled his wrist to make sure that she hadn't broken and joints. "Well alright."

_---Those'd take me hours to fix!_ Raven heard Cyborg think about his hand.

Blackfire moved down the line, meeting the half-demon girl's apathetic stare with her own slanted eyes. "Raven." Well, again, not a surprise. She was the only other girl on the team. For a split second she hoped that Blackfire wouldn't be nearly as annoying as Starfire was, or she would drown herself in the lake outside. One Starfire was barely manageable.

Two Starfire's would be just plain suicide.

"I like that gemstone on your Aghsma Chakra."

Wow. This completely tore down Ravens image of Starfire's sister and rebuilt it in a whole new light. She even allowed herself to smile a bit. "You…know about Chakras?"

"I got _way_ into meditation on Altara Prime." She moved down again. "Beast Boy, what's up?"

"Nothin' but the ceilin' baby," Beast Boy replied, pointing heavenward and grinning his grin at her. Blackfire chuckled at his incredibly lame joke, which Raven didn't find funny at all.

"Good one!"

As she moved down the line for the last time, Beast Boy whispered to Raven, "See? She thinks I'm funny." He had a cocky grin on his face.

"Statistically, I suppose _someone _has too," Raven said sarcastically, and Beast Boy glowered at the side of her head.

_What's her damage?_ Beast Boy thought, irked.

"You're always annoying me," Raven whispered under her breath. She saw Beast Boy twitch a bit but paid it no mind. It wasn't as if he knew she could hear his thoughts…

When Blackfire reached Robin, Raven was assaulted by a tidal wave of jealousy from Starfire. The emotion coming from the orange girl was so strong that Raven actually had to take a step back and cough.

"You okay?" Cyborg asked, and Beast Boy looked down at her with a concerned look on his face. Then it disappeared and he only looked curious. Raven looked up and nodded, returning to her place on line. She picked up a bit of Blackfire's conversation with Robin, who was soaking up the attention like a multi-colored sponge.

"---sk makes you look very mysterious," Blackfire fawned. Another wave of jealousy from Starfire, but Raven managed to smother the coughing feeling. Blackfire inched her face closer to Robin's, who seemed to be completely oblivious to the flirtatious Tamaranian.

"So, beloved Sister," Starfire intervened, wedging herself between a confused Robin and a surprised Blackfire in an attempt to keep her away from the boy of her affections. "What brings you to Earth?"

"Oh, I was in the quadrant," Blackfire answered breezily, waltzing over to the couch. "Thought I'd see if Earthlings liked to party." She effortlessly threw herself onto the couch. "Besides," she sighed, "I needed a rest; nearly got sucked into a black hole on my way here."

She was good, Raven noted with respect.

All three of the male titans flew to her side after looking at each other once.

"Black hole?" Robin asked, leaning against the sofa with both arms.

"No way!" Cyborg shouted, propping himself up with both hands holding up his head. Beast Boy mirrored his pose.

"Cool," the green titan admired. Raven frowned angrily. He was basically drooling himself---they all were. But actually seeing Beast Boy looking at someone with such admiration and such…ugh, was there even a word for the emotions they were feeling right now? _Lust? _Well, whatever you'd call it, Raven was annoyed by it. By the way Starfire was glaring, Raven figured that she was too.

---_so cool!_ All three boys thought in unison, almost timing it perfectly in their heads.

Blackfire smirked and started her dangerous tale. "Okay," she began, waving her outstretch arm to pantomime flying, "so I'm cruising through the Dreconis Nebula, and---"

"Sister, that area is _full_ of black holes!" Starfire said with a worried expression, cocking her head to the side. "You know travel there is forbidden."

Blackfire and the three boys tripping over themselves for her turned to stare at Starfire, who had yet to realize that no one really _cared_ if it was forbidden or not. In fact, that made Blackfire even _more_ exciting; the fact that she would travel through a place ridden with black holes just for the thrill of it.

She was _really _good.

"Most fun things in life are. Now, be a sweetie and bring me one of those 'soda's' I've heard so much about," Blackfire said, dismissing her little sister with a wave of her hand. _Too easy, _Blackfire thought.

Raven felt Starfire's self-esteem plummet, but really couldn't care. She was too busy pretending not to be angry with Blackfire for…being the center of the male population's universe right now.

Not like she cared.

Ha.

Please.

Raven, care about something so trivial?

Tch.

As if.

In a million years.

When _pigs_ fly---

Okay, so maybe she was a bit jealous, but it was something she could squelch easily.

"So, anyway, I'm zooming over Neventorizan, approaching light speed, when all of a sudden," Blackfire resumed, the boys eating up every word. Starfire went to the refrigerator and mumbled to herself about changing, snagging a soda for her sister. She slammed the door angrily and pasted a fake smile on her face as she tried to mask her jealousy with happiness over her sisters arrival.

But Raven knew.

…_Always wanting to boss me around because she was the heir to the throne!…_ Starfire ranted internally, and Raven remembered to ask what "throne" she had been talking about without letting her know she had been listening to her thoughts. From what Raven heard in about only ten seconds (Starfire didn't look it, but when she actually started went on a furious tirade, she could do it _fast_,) Blackfire could be mean, manipulative, and sarcastic.

Hm, Raven thought, my kind of friend.

"Here you are, Sister," Starfire said with false cheeriness, holding out the green fizz. Her fake happiness went unnoticed. Blackfire ignored her sister and went on with her elaborate story, but snatched the soda and chugged greedily after a moment. She paused before belching loudly, the foundation of the tower shaking slightly. Beast Boy, Robin, and Cyborg stared at her with wide eyes.

"'Scuse me," she said airily, crumpling the soda an in her hand as if it was a piece of flimsy paper and tossing it somewhere behind her. Cyborg laughed loudly, and Beast Boy joined in, eyes sparkling.

"Awesome," Robin complimented respectfully. Blackfire nodded in acknowledgement and returned to her story.

_---and now she's draping friend Robin over her! Why couldn't it be Beast Boy? Argatha retnu'lik yetis ghork!---_

Raven concentrated on not listening---which was very hard because she hadn't had the right amount of time to meditated---once Starfire started to rant in Tamaranian.

Another pang of anger overcame her when she heard Starfire suggest that Blackfire flirt with Beast Boy instead. Why did she care if he wanted to drown in a puddle of his own drool over a girl like Blackfire? He was a teenage boy, she was a very attractive girl. It didn't take a genius to figure out the numbers.

_Sowhy did she care_?

The microwave behind her exploded with dark energy.

Blackfire stopped and looked over with curiosity on her face. "What was that?" Wonderful, now everyone was looking at her. Raven inched over so that the ruined microwave would be hidden from view. The door was hanging off its hinges and the glass on the front was cracked.

"Nothing," she lied easily, but Beast Boy immediately saw through her.

"Oh, Raven randomly blows things up with her mind sometimes," he explained casually. Blackfire raised an inky eyebrow.

Raven scowled at the green-colored changeling. "No, I do _not_," she said through gritted teeth.

Just as she said that, a trickle of her powers leaked out and snapped at the fire sprinklers, setting them off. Raven's frown deepened as water came down from the ceiling. Water rolled off of her head and into her eyes, and she blinked once to clear them. Blackfire was smiling and Beast Boy was smirking at her with that one annoying fang poking out.

Ugh, that _stupid_ tooth! She just wanted to yank it out!

"Oh, really?" Beast Boy asked with both eyebrows lifted up. Raven answered him by flipping her wet hair away from her face and glaring, shoulders hunched. She turned and stormed away before anyone could crack a joke about "that loose canon Raven."

_Creepy, _Beast Boy thought, and Raven struggled to keep an neutral expression even though he couldn't see her face. Starfire gave her a pitting look as she stalked past.

Great, of all people, she was receiving pity from _her_.

The doors swished open as she walked in front of them, and just as they closed, the sprinklers shut off automatically.

---

"Would you mind telling me," Blackfire began with a strange expression, "why I found _these_ in the main hallway?" From behind her back she produced a pair of purple boxers hanging off her index finger. Beast Boy's face caught fire and he quickly tried to grab them from her but the black-haired girl smirked and held the boxers above her head, holding him off with her free hand easily. From their spot next to him, Robin and Cyborg bent in half and laughed.

"C'mon Blackfire, give 'em back!" he whined, wind-milling his arms pathetically. Blackfire shook her head and laughed.

"Finders keepers, and I found these babies on the floor outside your room," she teased. She pretended to sniff them and gagged. Beast Boy continued to struggle, and she sighed. "Never mind, you can have them." She threw them at him and the boxers landed perfectly on his head so that he wore them like a hat. Cyborg and Robin took one look at him and started laughing even harder, tears streaming down their cheeks.

Beast Boy whipped them off his head and hid them behind his back and out of sight. Once the two other boys had calmed down enough to form proper sentences, Robin suggested that they play video games. They all looked to Blackfire, who shrugged. "I've heard of them, but I've never tried before." Cyborg grinned.

"Then you'll love learning them from the masters." They dragged her away down to the main room. Before he started walking, Beast Boy took his boxers and sniffed them.

_They aren't that bad_, he thought before chucking onto the floor again.

The three began explaining the controls to her slowly so that she would understand, all fighting for her complete attention. They let her try a demo game and she failed

…horribly.

"It's okay," Robin said in an attempt to make her feel better. "It was pretty hard."

Blackfire bit her lip. "Oh, I'll never get it. Hey, I've got an idea!" She chirped, her eyes slanted even more now as she grinned. "How 'bout whoever loses challenge mode has to buy the team dinner later? You can play me, Cyborg."

The boys looked at each other and shrugged. They could use a free dinner, anyway.

"Now, I'll try to go easy on---"

START!The electronic voice screamed from the game station, and in less than several seconds, Blackfire had kicked Cyborg off of the course and won the game easily.

"--you," he finished with his jaw open, control in hand.

Blackfire grinned wider and dropped the controller in her lap, leaning back and resting her head on the couch. "I'll have one of those 'cheeseburgers'---make that five---and another one of the sodas---maybe three of them."

"But I thought you said that…" Beast Boy started, eyes wide.

"I've played similar training simulations on Tegular One," Blackfire replied. "This went in slow motion compared to them."

Awe.

Total awe.

The only way to describe what Beast Boy was feeling. A girl who had an appetite like a guy _and _could play video games? _And_ was a kick-butt Tamaranian alien girl?

_And_ was hot?

What else, could she squirt spaghetti out of her fingertips? Shoot marshmallows from her nose? This was too good to be true!

Robin went to go train later and Blackfire said something about going to a poetry club with Raven, so that left Cyborg and Beast Boy to duke it out and play until Blackfire came back, "winner-stays-on"sies.

Dude, though, was she cool or _what?_

---

Raven sat on her bed and started to chant. She needed to make sure that her powers were under control while she was out, unless she wanted to put the lives of hundreds of mortals in danger. And that's what she was---a danger to society.

No wonder Beast Boy thought she was creepy.

Her eyebrow twitched but she managed to keep from setting anything on fire.

Breath in.

Breath out.

_Azarath, Mentrion, Zinthos. _

_Az---_

"Raven, hey, you ready to go?" Raven cracked open an eye and reached out with her mind to see who it was. It was Blackfire, standing in front of the door and prepared to go to Raven's favorite café with her. _The Black Rose_ was dark and gloomy, perfect for someone like Raven.

The half-demon uncrossed her legs and walked over to the door slowly. When they swished open, Blackfire was standing in the opening with her hands on her hips.

_She really does look like Starfire…_Raven mused. "Yup." The two teens left the tower and began to walk through the city.

"Oh, I just love how quaint these Earth cities are!" Blackfire sang, twirling around to look at the twenty story skyscraper. "That building's almost half as tall as the ones I've seen somewhere in the Mertridian Galaxy." Raven raised an eyebrow at her.

A man in a suit brushed past the two girls, before looking back and giving them a weird look. She knew what he was thinking without even having to read his mind.

Creepy.

Creepy.

Creepy.

_Everyone_ thought she was creepy.

At least she didn't have to hear everyone's thoughts now as they walked past the hooded girl, looked back over their shoulder with a grimace and think _freak._

Because that's what she was: a creepy freak. It fit her perfectly.

Freak Freak Freak.

Creepy Creepy Creepy.

That was her, Raven that weirdo that blew things up with her mind.

So what was Blackfire doing here?

The question on Raven's mind was nagging her until she finally had to ask, albeit apathetically, "Why exactly do you want to hang out with me?" Blackfire smirked.

"Raven, puh-lease. Don't even ask me something that dumb. Dark and creepy is totally my style."

That nearly made Raven smile.

"So I've heard that your powers are tied to your emotions," Blackfire said back-handedly. Raven nodded from beneath her hood. Blackfire sighed. "That must really suck for you. It's no wonder why that microwave exploded, what with you being in love with him and all."

"Actually, it is very----what?" Raven stopped in her tracks to stare at the Tamaranian who seemed to not have noticed what she had said to offend her so badly. Raven stopped only a block away from _The Black Rose_. The streets were empty and the sky was gray, cloudy and setting the mood flawlessly. A newspaper blew by and rolled out across the sidewalk. A car alarm went off in the distance, probably from someone just bumping into a car, and trash cans were lined up in the alley way on the side.

Blackfire turned around and looked at Raven with a confused expression. "Don't tell me you're not in love with Beast Boy?"

Raven felt her emotions leak through but couldn't help herself. Besides, no one was out and Blackfire would be able to defend herself if she went out of control.

"No! Of course not!" The lid of a garbage can shot off five feet in the air before landing with a loud clang and rolling to her feet. "Why would you even suggest something that ridiculous?" Raven questioned, regaining her neutral voice. No emotion, no emotion. Can't show emotion Raven, take it easy.

"Well, I just figured since it seems you talk to him more than anyone else…" Blackfire shrugged.

"You talk to everyone, but I don't see people dropping down in front of you," Raven remarked. Blackfire smirked.

"Not yet, anyway. Robin seems pretty cute. And Beast Boy too, if you're really not into him."

And then she winked and started walking again.

Raven followed and thought that was that. Unknown to her or Blackfire, miles away, a man was just sticking his keys into the door of his car before it was sent straight into the air by some unseen, black, telekinetic force.

Well, what would Raven care about Blackfire?

It's not like she minded her going after the boys---it's not like anyone else would go for Beast Boy, the green, pointy-eared pipsqueak.

Ha.

She didn't care on bit.

---

Raven and Blackfire had come back from where ever an hour later. Raven had stormed up to her room to do…whatever she did in her spare time, and Blackfire had jumped over the couch to play the seven-time-in-a-row winner, Cyborg. She beast him mercilessly again and said, patting his head innocently, that she would be back for the next winner for a real challenge.

Now Beast Boy and Cyborg sat hunched over their game station controls, grunting to each other in their male-to-male language. The racing ships on the screen were zooming past each other, almost taking turns passing the other. Beast Boy was currently stuck behind Cyborg, who didn't miss the opportunity to rejoice.

"You wanna pass me," Cyborg beamed, "but you can pass me, you can't pass me, you can't p---" The screen blinked and a Beast Boy grinned. "Y-You passed me!"

"Tighten the turn, jets, and nitro!" Beast Boy yelled triumphantly, throwing his arms up into the air happily. _Finally_, he had the upper hand against Cyborg. Beast Boy did a short twirling dance to celebrate and laughed before scrunching his eyebrows and grinning as he concentrated. He jumped back onto the couch next to Cyborg and sat cross-legged, smiling at his success. The electronic theme music blared on.

"Tell me," Starfire said from behind, "have either of you seen Blackfire?"

"Blazin' B? She was here just a second ago," Beast Boy said, still grinning. Then he looked at the screen and his face dropped. Damn, Star made him lose his concentration!

"Aw yeah, back in the lead!" Cyborg, who had previously been leaning forward and scowling angrily, shouted as his ship knocked Beast Boy's off the screen. He laughed in Beast Boy's face and he silently fumed as his fingers pressed down on the buttons harder, as if he applied more pressure the character would go faster.

"What fun," Starfire cheered, "may I join your game?"

"Winner plays Blackfire," Cyborg explained cheerily.

"Yeah, she rules at this game," Beast Boy agreed, still unbelieving that a girl like Starfire's sister could exist.

"I see…"Starfire said sadly, but neither teenager heard her.

Beast Boy frowned and stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth, trying to get back in the lead.

Winner _was_ supposed to play Blackfire.

---

Raven sat on the couch with a leather back book in her hands covering half of her face from view. The three other boys sat on the couch, chatting aimlessly about something. Her eyes kept darting from the pages of Shakespire to Beast Boy, who was still radiating cheeriness and admiration for the new Tamaranian girl.

Again, not that she cared.

His smile was so big---did it always take up so much of his face when he grinned?

"_Don't tell me that you're not in love with Beast Boy?"_

Love? She would have laughed if that were something she did normally. She didn't have the time or the control to feel emotions like that, let alone something as ridiculously superficial as _love_. What was love anyway? Just someone enjoying the company of another more than anyone else. There wasn't really love in the world.

Just extreme like.

And she didn't even need to feel that. She was fine without feeling any emotions. So why bother?

She sensed Starfire's forced happiness before she heard her.

"Friends!" She declared. In each hand she held a bucket of popcorn and a collection of rented movies and candies When would she learn? "I invite you to join me in the togetherness of a stay home movie night. I bring you popcorn and non-cotton candies. Tell me, what sort of movie shall we view?"

"Action!"

"Comedy!"

"Sci-fi!"

"Horror."

Starfire looked at the group once before frowning and dropping everything she was carrying. Then she grinned embarrassedly, "Perhaps…a double feature?"

"Forget the flicks kids---we're going out!" Blackfire declared, throwing her arms open at the doorway.

"We are?" Starfire asked meekly. Raven read ahead in her book, hearing only some of the conversation. She felt the groups excitement later on and decided to tune back in.

"---party downtown? Cool crowd, hot music." Ugh, where was the fun in that? A bunch of annoying teenagers grinding against each other? Pass on that.

The others agreed heartily, but Raven went on reading. Who gave a damn about some stupid---

"And it's in a creepy, run-down warehouse…" Blackfire trailed off.

Well, maybe it wouldn't be that bad, Raven decided. She looked up from her page---which was two-hundred and eighty-three as of two seconds ago--- and slammed her book shut. The group began to file out one by one, starting with Cyborg, who whooped happily.

"I am a party animal," Beast Boy said, transforming into a hulking gorilla.

Raven and Robin followed suit, last to go being Blackfire who sort-of apologized for stealing Starfire's outfit. Raven tasted Starfire's sadness as she left but really didn't pay it any mind. She wasn't really Starfire's friend, after all.

She was just regular ol' creepy Raven.

---

The pulsing lights bathing the room in a shower of different colors.

The pounding music wreaking havoc on his ears.

The people dancing up against each other as they bobbed their heads to the beat of the music.

Beast Boy _loved _it.

He knew he wouldn't be able to hear that well later on, maybe even worse than the time he had suffered from the effect of Cyborg's sonic boom cannon, but he loved the party scene more than anything else. He was, in all sense of the word, a party animal.

"Step aside, Earthlings!" Blackfire cried as she lead the titans to the middle of the dance floor, shaking her hips. "The queen of the galaxy has _arrived!_" Raven stopped to watch something go on, but he kept going.

This was totally _awesome. _

"_Hahaha_!" Blackfire laughed, performing a series of very intimidating dance moves in front of Beast Boy and Cyborg. "Don't tell me you big, tough superheroes are afraid of a little _dancing_."

"Bet'cha Cy can do the robot," Beast Boy grinned, pointing at his best friend. He started the dance and Cyborg looked down at him once and rolled his eye. Blackfire whirled past and Beast Boy, Robin and Cyborg spontaneously started to dance, too. What was the fun of a party without dancing?

He couldn't see the rest of the group, but what did he care? It was a party, they were probably all having fun.

---

The pulsing lights bathing the room in a shower of different colors.

The pounding music wreaking havoc on her ears.

The people dancing up against each other as they bobbed their heads to the beat of the music.

Raven _hated_ it.

"This party is pointless," Raven said to Starfire in an annoyed tone. The lights were giving her a headache, the music was hurting her ears, and the swarm of emotions was making her stomach turn over. Even if it was in a creepy abandoned warehouse, this party truly had nothing to interest her at all.

"Everything's pointless," a pale boy commented next to her. He had greasy black hair that covered half of his face, and his shirt hung off his body and flowed over his thin shoulders. He had circles under his eyes and a spiked dog collar around his neck and wrists. "Wanna go talk about it?"

Raven shrugged, following him off the dance floor, and deserting her not-friend Starfire. At least now she'd have something to do besides regret ever coming.

He lead her to a secluded spot that was covered with boxes full of who-knows-what. He leaned against one and Raven assumed a similar position with one foot propped up against the side of a crate. They started talking about random, depressing things, agreeing with one word answers or with a roll of their eyes or with a shrug of their shoulders. He seemed okay.

Until he leaned in to kiss her.

---

Beast Boy was strutting his stuff with Cyborg at his side. Robin had left to check on Starfire, but other than that, he was on top of the world. He felt awesome as he danced with the music, looking as cool as he possibly could be. Only one word could describe this party.

_Duuuuuuuuuuude!_

He waved his arms around in a falling motion and grinned when a tall brunette started to dance closer to him.

Yeah, chicks totally dug his dance moves. It was just a fact of life. Like birds in the sky and fish in the sea, Beast Boy belonged on the dance floor. The entire night was going perfectly. Until he had to hear that voice.

"Get away from me!"

If his ears had been destroyed he would have never heard it, but he still somehow was able to sustain his superior sense of hearing. And he could place that low, sarcastic voice _anywhere_.

Raven was in trouble.

His instincts fought with each other, the two constantly at war. One part of his brain was screaming that he shouldn't bother, she could take care of herself, and that she was dangerous. But the other part was shouting even louder that he was a superhero and saving damsels in distress was just was superheroes did, even if the damsel was a creepy Goth girl that hated his guts.

Finally, he gave in to the latter one, and he crept closer to where the sound was coming from. He peeked over the side of a crate and saw something that enraged him to no end.

A Goth boy was holding Raven by the wrists and trying to kiss her, pushing her against the wall. Raven was scowling, her eyes already glowing faintly. She looked ready to throw a fit and dump one of those two ton crates on him. Beast Boy felt the same but knew that if she followed through with that she would kill him.

So he did what he usually did and followed his first animal instinct.

Protect.

Raven was just about to mutter her spell when he charged at the greasy haired boy at top speed. He didn't want to hurt him too badly so he refrained from turning into an elephant.

But, ugh, how he just wanted to trample this asshole!

Goth Boy let out a surprised cry when Beast Boy tackled him, and from the corner of his eyes, Beast Boy caught a glimpse of Raven's astonished face.

Beast Boy felt himself snarl in an animalistic manner, a habit of his when he got angry. He dugs his knees into Goth Boy's chest, who widened his eyes in pain. Beast Boy grabbed a fistful of his baggy shirt and brought his pale, sweaty face to his own. "What's your problem, _buddy?_"

"Beast Boy…" Raven said, still a bit shocked.

"Look, I was just---"

"Just what?" Beast Boy asked angrily, shaking him a bit.

"Beast Boy, get off of him. You might hurt him," Raven said evenly. Beast Boy wouldn't listen.

Goth Boy stuttered and couldn't find the right words to speak right now.

"Just _what _were you going to do? Huh, you puss-filled fu--!"

"Get off of him!" Raven shouted, using her powers to yank Beat Boy off of the frightened Goth. Goth Boy scrambled up and fled like a cockroach caught in the light.

Beast Boy scowled after him and turned to Raven. "Are you alright? Did he…_hurt you_?" He said huskily. He couldn't attempt to hide the disgust in his voice as when he even considered that slime-bag laying a hand on her.

"I am perfectly fine." Raven placed on hand on her hip. "I was handling the situation, you didn't need to make him wet himself." Beast Boy rolled his eyes.

"Uh-huh. With him pinning you against the wall like that---_toooootally_ handling the situation there." Raven scowled.

"Shut up, Beast Boy." He obeyed and she sighed heavily. "You didn't need to do that. But, um, thank you."

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head, suddenly chagrinned at his brute actions. Maybe she _could _have handled it. "Yeah, well…" His eyes looked everywhere except into Raven's violet ones. He glanced up and stared. "Rae…" He started, pointing at the window on the ceiling. The silhouette of a girl and something large with multiple tentacles shone through the glass. Raven looked at Beast Boy and Beast Boy looked at Raven. Then they both made a break for the stairs.

"Cy!" Beast Boy called back over his shoulder to the shimmying cyber-teen, "Star's in trouble!" Just as he said that, from the shadows long, wiry tentacles reached out a grabbed him. "Whoa!"

As he was being dragged away, he saw Cyborg run after him. Before he could get into a good sprint, another pod rammed right into him and he was thrown to the side.

Raven gasped and activated her powers. She floated eight feet into the air and her hands began to crackle with unused energy. She lifted two crates filled with the heaviest items she could find and tossed them at the pod. Beast Boy continued to grunt and struggle in vain. One crate hit and he screamed as the pod loosened its grip. The other one hit as well, and he landed on the floor with an _oof_! as the pod let go completely. Raven walked over and looked down at him.

Once again, they were even.

Then she titled her head up and her eyes widened from underneath her hood. She grabbed Beast Boy by the back of his costume and dove out of the way.

A pod dive-bombed through the glass windows above. Glass shattered everywhere and Beast Boy thought of his zombie game. The windows broke the same way, and the pods were just like the zombies. They kept coming back for more, never quite dieing. It was kind of horrifying when he thought about it.

Beast Boy turned around in time to see Cyborg land a punch on one of the incoming pods, sending it crashing through a bunch of crates. Starfire burst out from a box and shot a ray of star bolts at the pod chasing her. It smoldered and went flying towards Beast Boy, who back-flipped out of the way and morphed into a tiger, growling ferociously. He roared and slashed at the pod, satisfied that it flew through a wall at the force of his swipe.

Starfire tried to gain leverage over the pods, but all three circled her and she gasped. She flew them in a figure eight before Cyborg attacked one and began punching it non-stop. He took one by the tentacle and flung it across the room. The other spun at super speed, using it's tentacles as a power saw and cutting shallowly into him.

He went through a wall and dust and debris covered everything. Cyborg emerged with Robin and Blackfire, who were running towards the evenly-matched group.

The pods chased Starfire outside where they trapped her inside of a dumpster and started to carry her away. Starfire shrieked before Robin threw a bird-a-rang and sliced through the tentacles of the pod carrying her. "Teen Titans, Go!" Robin and Cyborg screamed at the same time. Before any of them could react, Blackfire flew straight for them, shooting rays of purple light out of her eyes. She hit the pods in all of the right places, making them combust automatically.

Pieces of the pods were strewn everywhere and a tentacle squirmed as it crackled with electricity before going still. "Aw yeah, good times!" Cyborg shouted happily

"Nice shootin', Tex," Beast Boy complimented.

"Very nice," Raven agreed, and Beast Boy had to control himself to keep from staring at her. Did she just…_agree_ with _him_? What has the world come to?

"How did you know where to hit them?" Robin asked curiously. Beast Boy had been thinking the same thing.

"Lucky guess?" Blackfire shrugged playfully.

"We could use luck like that---maybe you should join the team," Cyborg suggested.

Even Beast Boy could tell that she was over-doing her excitement when Blackfire said, "Me? A Teen Titan?" She looked over at the dumpster where Starfire was when she answered. Said Tamaranian girl lifted the dumpsters lid and gasped in shock, a banana peel on her head.

What could she be so upset about? Beast Boy wondered.

---

"I'm telling you, Radioactive Man was _totally_ bitten by a wild ferret when he got his superpowers!" Beast Boy said loudly, tossing a chip in his mouth and chewing it violently.

Cyborg snorted. "And I'm telling _you_ that he was dumped into a vat of radioactive jelly. What kind of idiot gets bitten by a ferret? That's like saying you got your superpowers by getting bit by a…a…a monkey! _Laaaame_."

Beast Boy flinched even though Cyborg had no idea how offensive he just sounded. But that was besides the point. Radioactive Man _definitely_ didn't fall into a vat of jelly. Ew.

"No, Dude, he didn't! He was bitten by a wild ferret that had fallen into a vat of radioactive jelly," Beast Boy argued.

Cyborg rolled his eye. "Whatever, man."

"Whatever my ass." Cyborg squinted at him before turning back to the television, muttering something about "what kind of superhero gets bitten by a ferret? A spider, sure. But a ferret?"

"Blackfire, where're you goin'?" the changeling asked when he saw Blackfire sneaking out the window. Blackfire jerked her head back and frowned before smiling again.

"Oh, nowhere. I'll be right back."

There was a thump from upstairs on the roof. "Did you hear that?" Cyborg asked.

"I didn't hear anything," Blackfire said innocuously. "But I should be going soon." Beast Boy shrugged, now uninterested.

"Uh, we have a door you know," Cyborg said, pointing over his shoulder. Blackfire smirked.

"Yes, but that's the _boring_ way out."

And then she flew out of the room without another word. "It's a shame she's gone now," Beast Boy sighed. "She was pretty cool."

"Pretty hot, you mean," Cyborg smirked, and Beast Boy high-fived him without looking away from the television screen. "If Rae wasn't already into you, she'd probably have hit on you. Well, she was throwing herself at Robin, though…"Cyborg said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, she was all over---What about Raven?" Beast Boy said, cutting off his previous thought and turning to look at his best friend to see if he was serious or just yanking his chain. "I said that Blackfire would probably have hit on you if she didn't know that Raven was into you." Beast Boy blinked, his brain still not able to process this information. He took a sip of his soda and Cyborg tried again.

"Blackfire. Would. Have. Flirted. With. You. If. Raven. Didn't. Like. You," Cyborg said slowly, annunciating his words slowly. Beast Boy blinked again before he finally understood. And when he did, he felt his face flush and he started to choke on his Mr. Fiz, spraying it everywhere. "Gross, man," Cyborg muttered as he jumped out of the way of incoming soda.

"Dude, don't say stuff like that when I'm drinking something!" Beast Boy whined, thankful that his face had returned back to its original green shade. "Besides, she hates me. She thinks I'm some kind of idiot," he countered.

Cyborg disregarded him. "I wouldn't hold that past her, B." Beast Boy opened his mouth to say something sarcastic to him when he felt the tower shake. The sound of a ship crashing into the roof echoed through the halls and the two boys ran for the exit.

"What was that?" Raven called from down the hall just outside her room. No one answered her and they all ran to the spot where the impact sounded greatest. They reached the roof and saw Robin and Starfire standing in the center, watching a space cruiser smolder on the roof.

"Star! Robin!" Beast Boy called as they ran.

"You two alright?" Cyborg asked. Just then, from the ruins emerged two alien thugs, coughing from the dust in the air.

"Titans, get ready," Robin growled, and all five titans assumed a fighting position. From close up, Beast Boy could tell that they were a hulking seven feet eleven, almost three feet taller than him. They were shielded with a red and silver armor with a symbol word proudly on the center of their chests.

"In the name of the Centari Empire, you are all under arrest," the alien thug boomed in a robotic voice. He pulled out a badge to make sure it was known that he meant business.

Four titans gaped at him while Raven stood in the back, un-amused. Did anything ever surprise her?

"Uh, you can't be the good guys---we're the good guys," Beast Boy informed them, pointing to himself and the rest of the team.

"And we are Centari police," the same one said.

"The Tamaranian girl is a liar and a thief. She had committed crimes throughout the entire Centari system!" the second one accused, thrusting a finger at Starfire. Obviously a rookie, Beast Boy knew.

"But I have never even been to the Centari moons!" Starfire cried helplessly. Robin turned to her and eyed her necklace.

A necklace, Blackfire had said, that came from the Centari moons.

"But I know someone who has," Robin said dramatically, untying the necklace and removing it from her neck. Starfire gasped but Robin continued on. "You've been chasing the wrong girl. Where's Blackfire?"

Beast Boy turned his head. "Uh…" He pointed up into the sky, and everyone twisted around to see what he was pointing at. Blackfire was flying up into the heavens, almost breaking out of the atmosphere.

"Don't worry Star, she won't get away with this."

"No, she will not!" Starfire said in a low, threatening voice. She bent her knees and kicked up off the roof at top speed, eyes ablaze. She flew into the clouds and was temporarily hidden before a burst of purple light set flame to the nighttime sky. Beat Boy saw Starfire free fall before she caught herself and rocketed towards her sister again. There was a shower of purple lights and green ones conflicting with each other.

Beast Boy thought back to the fireworks a few days ago, and realized that even though those were deadly star bolts and not just harmless colored explosives, green and purple really did look good together.

Then the lights stopped, and just as Blackfire was about to shoot again, one of the Centari policemen shot a stream of squiggly green gunk at her, encasing her body in it and rendering her useless, from the edge of their ship.

"Blackfire of Tamaran, you are under arrest."

Blackfire struggled against the gunk in vain as she was dragged away.

"Farewell Sister!" Starfire shouted, waving as her sister was restrained. "Even though you did betray and attack me, it was…still very nice to see you!"

"Next time it won't be so nice. I will get out of jail, and when I do, I _will get even_," Blackfire snarled. Once she was hauled away, Starfire floated down to the roof with her friends.

"That was…most unusual. Not all family reunions go like that, yes?" Starfire asked, and Cyborg shook his head. "Well, at least I got to see her again," she sighed.

"I never figured Blackfire to be so…evil before this. I mean, she seemed perfectly fine to me," Robin said.

"Yeah, 'cuz she was always breathing down your---oof!" Cyborg grumbled when Starfire hit him in the gut, a smile wide on her face.

"I'm just glad it's finally over," Beast Boy groaned.

_Trigon be damned if he's not right_, Raven silently agreed.

This had been one heck of a week, even for a robot, and alien girl, a half-demon, and ex-acrobat, and a green changeling.

---

Raven walked into her room and was mildly surprised to see a stuffed chicken staring back at her with glassy, unseeing eyes. It was covered with grime, it's feathers encrusted with mud and it had turned a disgusting light-brown color over the time it had spent dumped at the carnival. It's beak was chipped, the tip bent, and one eye was scratched. On the side was a small hole were a puff of stuffing was coming out, pure white compared to the color of the chicken itself.

Raven sighed and walked over to it, picking it up with two fingers to avoid making as little contact as possible with the thing, and held it out an armslength away as if it been soaked in toxic waste. She should have been dressed in a hazmat suit. She opened her window, the cool night air hitting her face and filling her nostrils with a the salty scent the air took on when one lived in a lake. She was about to toss the chicken out the window when she glanced at it once more. It was covered with dirt, battered and worn from all the time it had spen outside. And yet she couldn't bring herself to actually get rid of the stupid thing. No one had ever given her anything in her lifetime. She had been isolated in Azar and on Earth. She hadn't cared much about it when Beast Boy had first handed it to her, carelessly throwing it on the ground, but thinking back on it now, she was just a bit grateful for it.

And it was pretty damned cute once you looked past the mud.

Raven pretended that she hated it for the sake of her sanity and placed it on a chair in the farthest corner of her room. She snuck off to the washroom and snagged a wet cloth to clean it with. When she was finished, it didn't look to bad---almost decent looking, even. For the hell of it, Raven polished the eyes and straightened the crooked beak. She might as well keep it---it wasn't like anyone would come in and see it anyway.

How Beast Boy had managed to get into her room to leave the chicken on her bed was another story.


	3. Final Exam

**I would like to thank all of my readers and those who are always commenting. I don't think I'd find a reason to write without the reviews you guys send me! To those I haven't gotten a chance to reply to, yes, I am going to go through all 65 or some other episodes, even those that don't include BB or Rae (I plan to give myself a freebie and sneak in as much fluff as possible 8D!!) I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated last. My computer is on the fritz, and I might not to be able to update as much as usual. Spell-checked only, too late for me to read over. Please point out mistakes!**

**Enjoy!**

**---**

Static filled the screen of a television before a picture appeared.

"The Hive Academy for Extraordinary Young People is proud to introduce, this year' top graduates," a woman narrated. A platform was lifted to show three teenagers. On the far left was a girl with pink hair and pale skin. She wore a tattered piece of cloth over her shoulders and a black dress underneath it. The sleeves were designed to be too large for her hands, which were both dangling by her sides. She had a pink collar around her neck and purple and black tights, along with purple knee-high boots. The boy in the middle looked to be only three feet tall. He had beady black eyes and on his bald head he wore a large pair of goggles. He had on a green jumpsuit and a metal book bag attached to his back. On the far right, opposite to the boy in the center, was a huge red-haired young man. He had on a sleeveless black jumpsuit with a gold-plated chest and gold boots. Orange hair sprouted from his skull and chin, reaching all the way to his shoulders, which were as broad as a building. His tree-trunk arms were folded behind his back.

The three teenagers leaped from the platform, and the dwarf landed in a hallway with his hands proudly placed on his hips. "Gizmo," the voice introduced him as. "The boy genius, whose intellect can conquer any problem with an inventive solution." He pressed a button on his chest and from his backpack sprouted two identical mechanic wings. He produced a controller and jumped into the air, soaring through the hallway as his wings picked up speed. From the walls came three robots shooting bullets at him. He smirked and dodged them easily, shooting missals from the top of his mechanic appendages and taking them out in less than a second.

Then appeared the pink-haired girl with the two black bands in her hair. "Jinx, the enchanting sorceress whose powerful hexes mean bad luck for her enemies." She spun and from her hands came waves of pink energy. Two mean looking robots came forth from secret holes in the walls, and as the pink waves hit the bricks above them, they fell and crushed their robotic heads into their torsos.

She back flipped away from the wreckage and let the big, orange-haired boy take over. "And Mammoth, the genetically enhanced giant whose unstoppable strength speaks for itself." He smiled a toothy grin and smashed his hands down on a canon that was protruding from the ground. He shook for a second before he ripped it out from the floor, spun a few times, and then flung it into a wall.

A robot came from behind him and caught him in a headlock, but the dwarfed boy, Gizmo, flew onto the robots back and set a hissing machine down onto it. The robot sparked before falling down to the ground, dead, and releasing the giant-boy, Mammoth.

"Well-organized, highly trained, and combat equipped," the woman went on, "these new H.I.V.E. agents are the perfect fighting force" Jinx kicked off from Mammoth's hands and cart wheeled down the rest of the hall, dodging a barrage of bullets from the machine guns that came out from the wall. She landed gracefully on her feet and the other two slid into place next to her triumphantly, the ruined equipment smoking behind them. "And for the right price, this ideal team can be yours."

The image flickered before disappearing completely.

"Well, Mr. Slade?" asked an old woman with her white hair tied tightly into a bun. She held an official looking clip board in her arms and was dressed in a green uniform.

"Impressive, Truly," A mans voice echoed off the walls of the room, which was full of steaming pipes and was too dark to really see the mans face. "But robots and obstacle courses only prove so much. My plans demand operatives who can function in the _real_ _world_." He said the words as if they were a new concept the three teenagers couldn't grasp correctly. "If your students are going to serve me, they'll need to pass one final exam," he drawled, walking over to a different room and sitting down in a chair. At his side in a spotlight were the three H.I.V.E. students and the crisp looking woman, who was beaming proudly.

"Destroy the Teen Titans, and then we'll talk."

The spotlights went out.

---

"Aw, man! C'mon!" Cyborg wailed from the living room of the Titans Tower at the same time the mysterious Mr. Slade made his negotiations with the H.I.V.E. kids. Raven tasted the worry on him, and it was starting to make her tongue throb.

The kitchen was a complete mess. There were dirty dishes and chunks of food everywhere. Dishes with mold, dishes with bits of last night's dinner, dishes with bits of dinner from a few weeks ago. You name it, and they were stacked on top of each other in long pillars of garbage. The sink was cluttered with them as well, and a pale liquid dripped from the counter and onto the floor, creating a puddle. An empty cereal box lay on the floor, unattended.

"It's gotta be around here, someplace! Ugh, I don't believe this!"

Beast Boy had is nose to the floor, his furry green paws inching closer and closer to where he thought the missing object was hidden. A pizza box with left over crumbs was discarded in the corner, along with a few crumpled paper cups, a crushed soda can, and a couple donuts with bite marks in them.

"How could you lose the remote?" Cyborg questioned as he lifted the sofa and whipped his head around, looking for the prized possession. Beast Boy shook his head and transformed back from blood-hound form and back to being a scrawny teenage boy. He was kneeling by the CD shelves, which were trashed with old books and more soda cans.

"What makes you so sure _I_ lost it?" Beast Boy yelled back, throwing random books behind him as loose pages scattered to the floor. Raven knew dully that those had been her books at one point, but she really didn't want to be involved right now. She could just sense the fight about to break out.

Beast Boy pillaged through the collection as he searched, and from behind him, Cyborg started to shake the couch in hopes of the remote just simply falling out.

"Uh, 'cause you're _you_," he explained sticking a finger in the changeling's direction as he dropped the couch and frowned. Great, Raven thought, here we go.

Enter Beast Boy, stage right. Your motivation is that you're an angry best friend fighting over something stupid.

And---cue!

Beast Boy jabbed his thumb at his chest, playing out the theater in Raven's mind perfectly. "Hey, just because I lost that video game---!"

People were just way too predictable, Raven thought.

"And the tooth paste, and my football, and the waffle iron…!" Cyborg interrupted, counting off his fingers all the things his short friend had lost. But…he didn't lose that much stuff, did he? And he _definitely_ didn't lose that remote.

Raven was sitting at a table farther down, trying to read but unable to with the argument going on.

Okay, so maybe he _did_ lose things a lot, but it was too late for him to admit that he _might_ have misplaced the remote.

Not lost.

_Misplaced_.

"Things disappear!" Beast Boy countered. That was believable. In a giant T shaped tower with five teenagers, would it really be that surprising if things just went missing? "How'm I supposed to know where they go?"

Raven lowered her book and glowered at the green boy, but he failed to notice her glare. He was sweating a bit from searching so seriously, his costume sticking to his skin ever-so tightly, making his wiry muscles bulge out a bit, defining his chest and---

Ugh, stop! Stop with the disgusting thoughts about one of her stupid, immature teammates now!

"Well how'm I supposed to watch T.V. without a remote?!" Cyborg yelled, throwing his hands up, oblivious to his female team members internal struggle.

Raven frowned and slammed her book shut with a frustrated sigh, her eyes squinted. She stood and said with a note of pent-up anger, "Simple. You just get up and change the channel."

The two fighting titans stopped their yelling match so that they could stare at each other in disbelief before Cyborg said, deadpanned, "Don't even joke like that." Beside him, Beast Boy furrowed his eyebrows and nodded enthusiastically, hands on hips. When he frowned, his tooth stuck out even more than when he smiled, Raven noticed absent mindedly. But right now she was in the middle of proving her idiot teammate wrong.

"I wasn't joking."

"Good, 'cause it wasn't funny! Now either help us look for the remote, or go back to your nasty old book and---!"

Raven shook her head and resisted the urge to blast Cyborg out of the window and into the lake below. Violence wouldn't solve anything, Raven. Stick with diplomacy throughout all.

"This is a pointless argument over a useless device. You are wasting your energy and disrupting my concentration."

"I'm telling you that I didn't lose it!" Beast Boy yelled over her. The door swished open and Raven sensed Starfire and Robin walk in, chatting amiably about something irrelevant. When they noticed the spat going on, Robin went tense. "You were the one who watched T.V. last, so if you wanna blame someone, look in the mirror, buddy!"

"Whoa, Titans! Take it easy! Combat practice is this afternoon!" He said sternly. That was why he was the leader, Raven knew. He had that air of authority that helped him take control of a situation.

"We must mend your dispute by the sharing of unhealthy junk foods," Starfire recited happily. "I shall fetch them."

"I don't need food! What I _need _is the remote!" Cyborg shouted.

"Help me out here, Robin!" Beast Boy squeaked at the same time. "Have I ever lost anything?"

Raven struggled to keep quiet and not add that he was the only one to ever lose anything here. She honestly didn't want to be dragged into this.

Starfire skipped over to the refrigerator happily, either ignoring the yelling or just oblivious to it. Raven was too caught up in the emotions tossed up in the room over something as stupid as a remote to notice Starfire's disgust at the blue-fuzzed food. She thought she heard something growl over Robin's whistle---an attempt to take the attention off of the remote so that the fight would end---and the she heard Starfire scream.

There was an explosion of light and then everything was sticky, dripping, and blue.

The four titans covered head to toe in the gunk looked up at the ceiling in astonishment their mouths open in disgust. Cyborg was frozen in his spot, lurched forward about to pounce on his scrawny, green friend if he snapped. Robin was in the middle of the two, one hand pushing Cyborg back and the other holding Beat Boy out of reach. Beast Boy was stuck next to Raven, because when Starfire and squealed he had jumped involuntarily and had scraped against Raven's side. He shivered when his leg touched hers, but he hoped that she hadn't noticed. Raven titled her head up and a giant drop of blue landed dead on the center of her forehead, blotting out her Chakra and sliding down her nose.

Beast Boy broke out of his paralysis and snickered, earning a well-deserved glare from Raven.

"Maybe we should just go out for pizza…" Robin suggested, and the titans all silently agreed that it would be better than forcing down whatever "food" was left in the fridge.

---

The five teenagers were seated outside their favorite pizza parlor, and the traditional arguing over what type of pizza they would buy had been going on for nearly ten minutes. The sky was bright and cloudless, but to be honest, Raven would have traded anything for some rain. She was glad that they had at least snagged a table with an umbrella, using the old "I think I saved this place from a meteor a few weeks ago" excuse on the manager. Raven was sitting between Beast Boy and Robin, who were both ignoring her and arguing in lowered voices over what kind of toppings should be ordered. Cyborg sat across from her, and in her usual position---which was always somewhere near Robin---sat Starfire, at Robin's right. Everyone else sat with their legs crossed or spread apart lazily, except for Beast Boy, who had insisted on sitting on his heels with his chin resting on his knees.

Why did he have to sit in such an annoying looking manner? Raven concluded that it was just an animalistic custom that he hadn't even realized, sitting in such an awkward position without a second thought. It had to be tough to have a body full of jumbled up animal DNA. For Azar's sake, he was nearly fifteen and he still had yet to grace five feet! All those excess animal chromosomes must be wreaking _havoc_ on a boy going through puberty.

Without any warning, her brain produced an image of Beast Boy, only a foot taller and with more bulky muscles, his face a bit more narrow. The image winked at her minds eye and she desperately fought down the urge to turn red. She shook her head slightly so that no one would notice the slight movement and sighed quietly, clearing her mind of any…disturbing…images of any of her male teammates.

_Especially_ her green teammates.

Raven lowered her eyes from the blinding sunlight and tuned back into the squabble between the titans, her eyes unwillingly flickering to Beast Boy's face every few seconds to make sure he didn't suddenly fall backwards in his seat, his expression slightly crumpled with frustration as he argued. She convinced herself that she was only looking at him so much because he had toothpaste stuck on his chin.

"Black olive with mushrooms!" Robin suggested.

"No one likes onions," Beast Boy replied to Cyborg.

"Anchovies," Starfire said calmly. Raven rolled her eyes, still not-staring at Beast Boy, although her head was turned in his direction.

"Can we please just order something?" She droned, and her stomach grumbled expectantly. She really didn't care what was on the goddess forsaken pizza, just if it was edible!

"As long as it's vegetarian," Beast Boy ordered, immediately triggering a complaint from the local meat-eater Cyborg.

"Oh, come on, man! How can you deny me the all-meat experience?" Beast Boy's face twisted in disgust when he replied, menu in hand.

"Dude, I've _been_ most of those animals!" He cried, thrusting a thumb to his chest.

"I suggest a large pizza with pickles, banana's, and mint frosting," Starfire piped up from her spot at the table, smiling innocently. The four titans stopped to look at her strangely, something that she did not notice. Raven shook her head and saw Beast Boy's eyebrows twitch from the corner of her eye.

She wasn't watching him. He just happened to be in her peripheral line of vision.

Robin, who had devoted most of his time with the alien girl to explaining the strange Earth ways to her, muttered from behind his menu, "Uh, Starfire…not everything on the menu's a pizza topping."

Her smile split and she seemed a trifle embarrassed. Raven tasted it on her tongue like copper and wished even harder for the too-salty, too-greasy taste of pizza to get rid of it. "Oh."

"Double pepperoni," Cyborg decided then, obviously trying to get a rise out of the determined little green vegan.

"I am _not eating meat_!" Beast Boy declared, waving his menu in his hand.

"There's no meat in pepperoni," Cyborg snorted offhandedly, and Raven scoffed at him.

"Are your memory banks on the fritz, dude? _Pepperoni is meat! And I'm not eating any meat!" _Beast Boy shouted, scaring off the waiter that had walked by to take their order. The blond haired man had a smile frozen on his face, his notepad in hand as he fled from the table. Poor soul must have been new; all the other waiters had gotten used to their bickering.

"Let's just get half pepperoni, half vegan, okay?" Robin sighed, thankfully interrupting the argument. Beast Boy agreed, as did Cyborg, but both buys muttered something under their breaths. Beast Boy said something about a slaughter-house pizza and Cyborg said that it was no wonder why Beast Boy was green, all he ate was vegetables.

From in front of the parlor, a bus flew down the inconveniently placed hill from over sixty miles per hour, horn honking. The titans stood from their seats, chairs scraping the floors as they hurried up and watched in a confused way.

Beast Boy glanced down and gasped. There, perfectly in place in front of the run-away bus' line of trajectory, was a baby stroller, a sobbing toddler whining from inside.

Did these kinds of things happen on purpose, or did people just randomly leave babies in the middle of a busy intersection?? He thought blankly.

"Titans, go!" Robin uttered, and the titans jumped into action.

Starfire swooped down and carried the carriage away from the bus, while Raven and Cyborg dropped down in front of the speeding, ten-tons of metal and wheels heading directly for them. For one fleeting second, Beast Boy felt his heart stop when he realized that Raven could get hit. Which was utterly ridiculous. She was a superhero and she could take care of herself. And what about Cyborg, who was just about to take on the bus, head first? But he couldn't deny that he had been scared for her, in just the space of that one second before going back to not caring at all.

Cyborg bellowed and caught the bus with both hands. He slowed it down considerably, but he was still being pushed back, his boots skidding on the concrete. Raven came to his rescue shortly after, throwing up an arm and using her freaky demon-chick powers to stop the car and put it in park.

Cyborg grunted with relief before looking into the windshield. "Um, don't buses usually have drivers?" he asked, puzzled, with a hand on his head.

"And don't baby carriages usually have babies?" Robin questioned, holding something in the stroller. Beast Boy stood on his toes to look over his leaders' shoulder to see that it was a stuffed bear, the fake smile teasing the titans who had gone out of their way for nothing.

A voice came from it, squeaky to the point where only Beast Boys own cracking pitch could rival it. "Are you pit-sniffers normally this stupid?"

Then the yellow eyes of the smiling bear shuttered and two blinding yellow lasers shot from them, sending Beast Boy, Robin, and Starfire high into the air. From a few meters away, the bus Raven and Cyborg had just stopped shook before it was lifted off of the ground. Raven stared at it with her mouth agape, and Cyborg's own mouth dropped when he saw that it was an orange-haired boy that was carrying it.

With a toothy smile he brought it down on them, concrete flying everywhere as it smashed into the ground.

Beast Boy groaned when he fell directly into a trash can, while Starfire and Robin had managed to avoid impact with any trash completely. Just his luck to be the only one that smelled like rotten fruit and spoiled milk. He spit out an apple core onto the floor, and felt what seemed like a banana peel on his head.

"---wanna go get pizza?" He heard the same squeaky voice ask. He looked up and saw three strange looking people standing in the center of the street confidently. One boy was tall and had an orange beard, the other boy only three feet tall and bald. There was one girl, who had freaky pink hair and a black and purple striped outfit. Her skin was almost as pale as Raven's, he observed.

"This isn't over," Robin declared, brushing himself off. The bus was rocketed into the air by Cyborg's sonic cannon, and he growled angrily. Raven fazed next to him through a bird-shaped haze of her powers.

"We're just gettin' started!"

"Who are these guys?" Beast Boy asked from his spot stuck in the trash can, taking the banana peel off of his head. "And what's a cludgehead?" He asked, remembering the name midget-boy had used to describe them.

"We are the H.I.V.E.," midget-boy introduced.

"Your worst nightmare," thundered the bearded-boy, cracking his knuckles.

"And this is attack pattern alpha," pink-hair finished, and the group broke apart.

Midget-boy jumped into the air and from his back transformed a jet pack. He soared upwards, shooting bullets one after the other at the three standing titans (well, one was still in the trash until he dodged to safety.) Beast By threw the rubble of the collapsed building off of himself in time to see Cyborg and Mammoth grappling with each other. Then midget-boy, Gizmo, landed on his back and stuck a mechanic box on it. He smirked and muttered something to him, pressing a button on his controller and watching gleefully as the box rocketed Cyborg into the sky, smoke trailing behind him.

"Cyborg!" Starfire gasped, and kicked off the ground to catch him.

Raven side-stepped as the pink-haired girl, Jinx, tried to land a spinning kick in her face. She twisted around and ducked more of the unlucky sorceresses' blows, throwing in one of her own punches that had been easily deflected. She had never liked hand to hand combat, anyway.

"You fight like a boy," Jinx remarked. Not surprising, since they were the only ones she had to train with.

"And you're gunna croak like a frog!" Gizmo laughed, suspended in the air by a set of mechanical spider legs. A laser burst from his chest, aimed directly at her. She grunted and flew backwards a few feet in the air. She got ready to skid across the floor, for the connection of the passing ground and her body to scrape her flesh, but it never came. Instead, she was thrown into Beast Boy, landing on top of him so that she was lying with her stomach on his back. Oh, why was she always on top of him? She apologized curtly and helped him to his feet, to which he thanked her just as curtly for.

"Him?" Beast Boy asked, pointing at Gizmo. Raven nodded and he scowled. Ooh, he was going to get that little brat for that! He hadn't the faintest idea why, but he knew that if anyone hurt Raven, would even think about harming her, he would make sure that revenge was exacted. Without a word, he charged towards him. He cried out a scream of pure thrill before transforming into a raging elephant, raising his trunk and tooting loudly.

He never expected Mammoth to pick him up with one hand.

Yeah…never saw that one coming.

"Mammoth's gunna make you extinct," Mammoth grunted in third person, and Beast Boy knew that he must have had only a third grade education at the most. Mammoth tossed him into the air, spinning as he swung his arm and punched him back to his teammates.

"Beast Boy! Hang on!" Robin screamed, but it was too late. The green elephant went speeding towards him, but Beast Boy still had the mind to morph back into human form before they collided. They fell with an oomph! and Beast Boy skidded a few feet before stopping, upside down with his legs hanging over his head.

"Is it just me, or are we getting out butts kicked?" he asked, looking at Raven directly. Did her eyes always look so big when her hood was up? He had to admit, even upside down, she looked pretty.

Wait…

Pretty??

"It's just you," both Raven and Robin said in unison in the same irritated voice.

"Listen up team, I have a plan!" Robin started, but was interrupted when Gizmo shot another one of his bullets at them. Robin fled away from the blast. Raven and Beast Boy…not so lucky. He was blasted up and started to scream before he found a good position and twirled in the air so that he would land on his feet. Ha. And people said that he had no sense of balance. Well, Robin wasn't the only one that could show off.

Raven was just about to hit the ground and he scrambled to catch her in his arms. He couldn't let her get hurt when he could catch her. She landed with a surprised grunt, reflexively throwing her arms around his neck to keep from falling.

She wasn't that heavy, Beast Boy thought, but she was taller than him, and holding her bridal style wasn't such a good idea. Her body was angled so that one hand was underneath the back of her knees, which were knocked together, and one was digging into the small of her back.

Her bare hand made contact with the uncovered skin of his neck and she gasped in shock, her muscles locking up frigidly. She almost screamed, it was such a jolt. When her skin came in contact with his, it was as if someone had stuck a live wire into her arm. The shock was so great that she started to tremble in his arms, as if her veins were flowing with electricity instead blood.

Without even triggering her mental abilities, she was filled with the very essence of Beast Boy. Every emotion he was feeling, every thought he was having, _and everything_ was ten times stronger than if she had reached out to him normally with her mind. She felt not only like she had reached out with her mind---she felt as if she had cannonballed into him. Her psychic bond with him seemed to get stronger, as if she had been thrust into Beast Boy's mind.

It didn't seem to have the same affect on Beast Boy, however, and he seemed fine. She moved her hand slightly so that she was no longer touching his skin, and the electric feeling went away instantly, along with her horrible case of shivers.

He wobbled a bit underneath her weight and she gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck so that her face buried into his chest. She heard the soft murmur of his heart beat pick up when her face touched his chest and for a minute his scent was all she could smell; sweat, the faint aroma of the pizza parlor, and his own natural, musky scent. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply before she remembered where she was.

She muttered something into his chest, without wanting to look up at him. She would be too…Well, she had never felt emotions that well before, but would the correct word be embarrassed? It seemed silly to be feeling such a frivolous emotion.

_Especially_ towards her green teammate.

"What?" he asked, in a sort of daze.

"I said, you can put me down," she repeated louder.

"Oh, um…sure," he said quietly after a few seconds of realization, placing her safely on her feet. "You okay there, Rae?"

Raven glared at him but said in an almost pleasant manner, "Fine, and you?"

Beast Boy brushed himself off. "Peachy keen." He eyed her and smirked, and she tasted the rotten taste of sneakiness when he continued on with his next sentence. "You know, you didn't have to kiss me before. A simple 'thank you' would have sufficed."

Raven felt her mouth drop. "Kiss…?" she started, and then her mind registered what he was talking about. In that instant when she had instinctively put her face against his chest, and her lips had touched him, he had thought she had…._kissed him?_

She had never been so happy to have her hood up, shading her face so that the boy standing in front of her wouldn't be able to see her face flushed with color. "Don't be an idiot, Beast Boy. It was an accident, so you shouldn't flatter yourself so easily."

A street sign shrieked as it was twisted into a pretzel across the street, and his joking smile transformed into a full-blown smirk.

Right before he could say something sarcastic, both teens felt the ground shake and looked up to see Gizmo fire rapidly and the street before Robin. Jinx waved her arms and added a bad luck hex, followed by Mammoth, who jumped down onto the already-cracking tar and brought both fists down on it, splitting the ground open. Robin screamed as the hole swallowed him up and as he plummeted downwards into the black nothingness that was the undergrounds of the city.

Raven and Beast Boy ran to the giant crated and peered down into it. Beast Boy's wide eyes searched through the water that had carried their leader away, but saw no hint of the red-and green clothed boy wonder. He had disappeared completely.

That didn't stop him from calling out his name. The only reply was his own hallow echo.

"…_obin…bin…bin…bin…_"

"We'll deal with you butt-pickers later," Gizmo sneered. Mammoth nodded in agreement and in a flash he had bent his knees and leaped into the air, using his super strength to launch himself upwards, leaving a crack in the ground. Gizmo's backpack transformed into a rocket and he flew away himself. Last to leave was Jinx, who laughed at the two heroes and said, "You and your girlfriend better look pretty hard for bird-boy if you wanna find him now," before acrobating her way out.

Beast Boy knelt on the ground and cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting Robin's name once more before looking helplessly at Raven. He made no motion to guard his appearance now that no one was around to see him. He knew that she could sense his distress, so why bother hiding it? Could you hide _anything_ in the presence of her?

She sighed. "Let's go, Beast Boy." Then she jumped down into the sewer, only to halt an inch above the water as she floated. She looked up at him with her hands on her hips. "Well, are you coming or not?"

Beast Boy nodded and dove in after her, transforming into a humming bird and fluttering about around her head. "Go check how deep the water is," she commanded, and without a doubt in his mind about her judgment, the green humming bird morphed into a small fish. It dropped into the water, creating a splash and getting the edge of her cape wet, Raven noted with distaste.

A few minutes later, she saw the blurry figure of the fish swim to the surface. Then, as the water shivered, Beast Boy's head popped up and he sucked in a great amount of air. He kicked his feet and flailed his arms wildly before Raven picked him up out of the water telekinetically. "Almost a mile down," he coughed. His hair was matted down to his forehead and water traveled down from his green hair and into his emerald eyes. He was frowning, which meant that his tooth was sticking out even more than ordinary. His uniform was completely soaked, clinging to him like a second skin. It was like he wasn't even wearing---

"Ugh, it's freezing in there!" Beast Boy exclaimed loudly, stopping her train of thought; unluckily or luckily, she wasn't so sure. He wrapped his arms around himself and shuddered violently. Then he shook his head, as a dog would after a bath, and water flew from his hair and showered Raven with it. She grimaced and dropped her telekinetic hold on him, and with a surprised cry, he hit the water, only to fly out as a very annoyed bird.

Raven came close to smiling but refused to show any emotion to anyone.

_Especially_ her green teammate.

The two followed the current of the stream, searching for any hint of Robin but eventually coming up empty. They had stopped only once when Beast Boy had said he'd seen something, and Raven had started to find hope when she spotted Robin's utility belt.

But that was all they found, no Robin attached.

"He'll come up eventually," Raven sighed, but Beast Boy was determined to find him. They searched in every possible place that Robin could be, but couldn't find even a whisper of his presence. Raven couldn't sense him either, which was giving her the gnawing, empty feeling of worry that she could just barely suppress.

When Beast Boy had finally given up, they returned to the surface world. Raven landed softly on the ground while Beast Boy clumsily landed after her. She could taste his worry, also. He took a few steps forward before howling in pain in an animal-like way. He knelt on the ground, on hand firmly clamped on his right thigh. "Ow…" he groaned, tossing his head back as he bit back another cry.

"What's wrong?" Raven asked in a neutral voice, although she was frightened about what might be ailing her green companion.

"My thigh…huuuuurts…" he hissed through his teeth. Raven rolled her eyes. _Thanks for the obvious_, she thought. "It must have been from that fight before. I got scraped by one of Gizmo's bullets but I figured it was just a flesh wound, you know? That it would just go away. Oww…" he whined as a fresh wave of pain hit him.

Raven glanced at the watchtower. "That was nearly an hour ago. With the combination of you swimming in sewer water and leaving it unattended for so long, it's probably been infected."

He moaned again. "Augh, it feels like I'm bleeding fire!"

Raven resisted the urge to kneel down next to him ad rub his back soothingly. "Can you make it to the tower?" she asked critically, turning her head to glare at their T-shaped home as if it was the houses' fault for giving Beast Boy the infection.

Beast Boy shrugged and slowly removed his hand from his wound. He staggered up into a standing position and grinned tightly. "Yup," he lied through his smile, tottering a bit. He hated looking weak in front of anyone, and Raven was no exception, mind reader or not. He guessed that if he hid his pain well enough, she would never know. Bury any feelings of discomfort and she wouldn't have to waste her time worrying about him. "I guess I was just bein' a drama queen," he laughed mechanically. It was just a habit for him to immediately rush into comedy to keep from letting anyone in on how hurt he was. So it was just a scratch.

Well it was a scratch that _hurt like fucking hell_.

But he kept his smile on, even as he took a step forward and every single muscle in his leg screamed in protest, then another agonizing step, and another. Finally he titled a bit and Raven was right by his side, already her arms out to catch him. Together they hobbled the rest of the way home, Raven with her arms around Beast Boy's middle while Beast Boy slung an arm over her thin shoulders. Raven made sure that she didn't make any contact with his skin as they slowly made their way to the tower. When they reached the doors of the tower, which swished open at their arrival---they never locked the doors, because what crook would be dumb enough to break into a team of superheroes home? --- Raven hurried him to a chair.

"That didn't just happen," Beast Boy said as he sat. "Tell me that didn't just happen." Absently, he began rubbing his thigh.

"It did happen," Raven said gravely as she removed her hood. "We cannot change the truth, no matter how much we dislike it."

She looked down to see Beast Boy rubbing his thigh and activated her healing powers. This would be the last of her energy, but she would recover quickly later on. She went on her knees next to him and her hands both began to glow blue. Beast Boy stopped rubbing his thigh when she placed her hands firmly on his leg. He straightened his spine at how close her hands were but allowed Raven to continue.

The irritating pulse of his scrape went away, the glow of her hands soothing it instantly. When she was finished she removed her hands and let them hang limply by her sides.

"Who knew we had a doctor in the house?" He asked brightly, eyes sparkling. He looked at her with something only considered as…content. "Thanks," he said, smiling sincerely. His fang was still sticking out, she observed. It wasn't that annoying smirk of his, or that stupid grin of his that he had when he told one of his lame jokes. It was an honest smile, and Raven could swear that her heart missed two beats when he looked at her. She hoped, although knowing it was useless, that his superior sense of hearing couldn't pick up the irregularity of her heart beat.

"No problem."

The two stood in the same position like that, staring into each other eyes---not in a romantic way whatsoever, Raven continuously told herself---and Raven almost thought she saw Beast Boy lean forward towards her.

Then the tumblers of the door were activated and they opened to reveal Cyborg and Starfire, ending the almost-moment the two had shared.

"Maybe ya'll should call me Fly-borg," Cyborg announced. "I was halfway to Gotham City before Star zapped that thing off my back." Starfire nodded and Cyborg went on. "So what I miss?"

Raven felt her face melt into something resembling sadness as she looked down at the floor, and Beast Boy followed suit.

"Tell me how we kicked their butts," Cyborg begged. "C'mon, I gotta have the play-by-play."

Starfire looked around and frowned. "Where is Robin?" she asked in a confused voice.

"Um…Star? We're not sure," Beast Boy said quietly, eyes still on the ground.

"Not sure?" Starfire asked, growing slightly worried. "Why are you not---?"

"We searched everywhere," Raven explained. "And all we found," she said, producing the boy wonders' utility belt from her cloak, "was this."

Starfire gasped and Cyborg groaned, throwing his hands on his head. "Ugh!" he cried angrily. "I shoulda' been there! I let that kid sneak up on me and---what was I? ---it was a trap and I---I shoulda' known…" he trailed off, staring at his hands.

"I do not understand," Starfire said shrilly, stepping in front of Raven and yelling at her as she slowly lost control. "How could you not find him? People do not just vanish! There has to be someplace so go there and look!"

Beast Boy slipped in front of Raven and held up two hands in a sign of peace. "Easy, Star, c'mon. This is Robin we're talking about," he half-smiled. "I'm sure he's fine," he lied. "He'll probably turn up any second."

The doors were activated again, and Beast Boy was happily surprised that he had been right. "Awesome timing!" he congratulated himself and Robin.

"Robin!" Starfire cried, flying towards the door. When she was only a few feet from it they were blown in by a bomb, throwing her against the wall. Black smoke coated everything for a second before it cleared way for the titans to see who it was that had blown up their front doors.

"Oh, no," Beast Boy muttered, his eyes widening. Maybe they should have started locking their doors.

The H.I.V.E. students filed in, Jinx leading the pack with an insane smile dancing on her lips. From behind her, Mammoth cracked his knuckles loudly.

"Oh, yes," she replied huskily.

"You guys got lucky last time, but you're in our house now!" Cyborg yelled, filling in Robin's spot as leader. The titans scowled and took a battle position, fists clenched.

"Yeah, nice place," Gizmo agreed, high up on his spider-like mechanic legs. "We'll take it!"

There was a loud bang and an explosion as he shot another five bullets at the team, who split up to take on the three students. The force of the explosion threw Raven to the ground, while Starfire flew up and began to fire star bolts at the villains.

"Wah!" Beast Boy was tossed to the floor and he glared before jumping back up and dodging another attack. Cyborg tried holding them back with his sonic canon and shouted to his team, "Split up!"

Raven fled for the stairs. She looked down once she got past the first flight and Starfire came after her, flying up past her. She ripped the two fire extinguishers from the wall with her mind and they were encased in a black aura before they were chucked at Mammoth, who was slowly advancing on her. He punched them out of the way and sprinted after her.

Raven swallowed a scream and she and Starfire threw open the doors to the training room. Raven held them shut with her mind while Starfire sealed it with her star bolts. They stepped back to admire their work when a loud bang came from behind them. From her spot on the floor, Raven squinted through the rubble and her mouth fell open.

"Hello, Ladies," Mammoth bellowed, his head sticking out from the hole he made in the wall.

Raven and Starfire both held each other and screamed loudly.

---

Beast Boy snarled and leaped through the air, transforming in mid-air into a cheetah. When his paws hit the ground, her bounded forward in a desperate attempt to distance himself from the pink-haired menace, otherwise known as Jinx. She cocked her head and a wave of pink magic bounced off of the walls of the corridor he was racing through. He refused to look back, but he heard the clang of metal as the walls began to fall apart.

"Here, kitty-kitty," Jinx mocked in a crazy voice that made Beast Boy's fur stand on end. Had she honestly lost her mind? Her head rocked back and forth as she sent out more bad-luck spells around her, tearing the hall to shreds.

"Afraid of a little bad luck?"

_Very afraid!_ He wanted to call back over his shoulder, but instead he replied by letting out a low growl. He could have sworn he heard someone scream from upstairs, but right now even if someone had, they would have to fend for themselves. It almost sounded like Raven, and he felt a slight constriction in his chest at the thought that she might be in trouble, although a second later he disregarded it and decided that as a superhero she could handle the problem. Besides, he was a bit…preoccupied at the moment, what with the psychotic pink-haired sorceress trying to _kill_ _him_ and all.

He willed his legs to move faster, his claws clinking lightly on the polished floor of the never-ending hallway. His nails seemed louder when Jinx stopped throwing bad luck at him along with her jeers.

_Clink._

_Clink._

_Clink._

He almost burst out crying when he saw a turn in the corridor. Switching back into a human shape, Beast Boy threw himself around the corner and looked over his shoulder, satisfied that her pink-lipped, bone-chilling smile wasn't leering behind him. He began to pant, catching his breath. "Lost her," he breathed in relief to himself.

From above he heard the sound of screws loosening and before he could even look up, a giant metal tile fell from the ceiling and smashed into his face. He threw his arms out in surprise, and felt the force of the hit shake his entire body as he moaned in pain. His nose felt like it had been smashed into his skull, but apparently it hadn't been broken because blood wasn't spurting everywhere. He fell forward onto the floor and moaned again.

"This just isn't your lucky day," Jinx observed as she stepped from behind the turn.

"I wonder why," Beast Boy agreed from on his knees, with a gloved hand covering his face. He rubbed the back of his head with his other hand, and decided that if Jinx was going to play tough, he should too. It was time to play hardball with Little Miss Bad Luck. He transformed into tyrannosaurus, one of his favorite animals to turn into when he brought out the "heavy artillery," and roared ferociously in her face. Much to his dismay, Jinx back flipped out of the way in the kind of acrobatics that reminded Beast Boy of Robin. She landed at the end of the hall on her feet, grinning a wide smile and hissing, her eyes now glowing pink energy. Beast Boy growled again and his beady eyes darted down in time to see the remnants of Jinx's hex disappear around his feet in a circle.

_Uh_-_oh_.

The floor crackled and dropped from beneath him as it transformed into a more brittle substance. A substance that apparently couldn't support the weight of a tyrannosaurus rex.

Go figure.

He let out a surprised sound from the back of his throat and fell far into the floor below with a loud crash. He didn't have enough strength to retain a proper animal form and shrunk back into his original, puny, five foot zero form. He squinted his eyes to se through the dust up at the hole in the floor in time to see Jinx peer down at him triumphantly. From a different floor heard Cyborg scream before he heard a splash come from outside. He flew up through the hole as an eagle and was about to dive-bomb Jinx when she tossed another ray of bad luck his way. He turned back into a gawky fourteen year old once more and was then ejected through the roof of the Titans Tower. He yelled and hit the water surrounding his home with a splash, the impact against the surface almost the equivalent of hitting concrete.

When he came back up for air, he spat out a fountain of water that he had swallowed. Floating around him he knew was Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven, who was probably secretly seething. Her hair was a darker shade of purple and it was matted to the side of her head. Beast Boy would have laughed if the situation didn't suck so much. "Have a nice afterlife, ya snot eatin' _losers!_" Gizmo shouted from the top floor of the tower. Jinx splayed her hands and released the biggest gust of bad magic yet. Once it hit the water, a tidal wave came from nowhere, blocking even the sun from view.

Beast Boy felt his ears droop as he gawked up at it. It came crashing down in an instant, forcing Beast Boy under. He couldn't think right enough to transform into a fish of some kind, and besides, what would happen to his other teammates if he left them to drown?

He tried to scream for help but his mouth was filled with the salty water and sand. All that came out of his mouth was a distressed gurgle as he clawed at the water, his hands holding nothing as he kicked and flailed in a desperate attempt to keep from drowning. Pure instinct flooded into him then, giving him the determination to live. It burned to his very core as he swam back to the surface. When his head came back up he sucked in air as if it was going to be the last breath he ever took, then proceeded to hack up sea water and sand and even one piece of seaweed. The current of the wave pushed them farther from the tower until it was no longer in sight.

He couldn't see his teammates but sensed that they were nearby. He gave up his fight and allowed himself to float lazily until he reached some form of land. The titans ended up on the shore of a beach, and Beast Boy ran the rest of the way through the water once it was shallow enough for him to stand in. He turned around to see if his friends were following him, and sure enough he saw the faint outline of Cyborg and Starfire in the distance.

_But where's Raven_?

He threw his arms up into the air and called for them, waving his limbs to catch the attention of his team members. In a few seconds, the two were sprinting through the lesser waves on the beach. Starfire seemed fine, but Cyborg was missing his right arm---Gizmo's fault, Beast Boy guessed. But how that happened was the last thing on his mind.

"Cy, where's Raven?" He asked seriously. Cyborg looked guiltily at Starfire, who looked at the ground. Beast Boy smelled their shame and his stomached dropped the same way the floor had during his fight with Jinx. "Where's Raven?" He screeched, almost losing control of himself.

"Friend Beast Boy…"Starfire started.

"BB, we couldn't find her. She must've drifted too far," Cyborg told him. He tried placing a hand on his shoulder but Beast Boy shrugged him off violently. He suddenly realized how Starfire must have felt when he and Raven had informed her that Robin had disappeared. The feeling of…loss….was so strong that it was like he was drowning again. He couldn't even comprehend how horrible it would be not to have Raven standing in the kitchen and boiling her nasty tea, laying on the couch and reading one of her boring books, meditating on the roof, criticizing his IQ, training in the gym, slamming the door to her room in his face---

"Don't touch me! How could you---" he stopped when he spotted something a twelve or so yards away. It looked vaguely like a body.

A blue-cloaked body, lying face down in the sand, violet hair surrounding her head like a halo.

Beast Boy called her name and ran towards her. Well, perhaps "ran" is too slow of a word. It was more like Beast Boy had stayed been flying towards her, his feet barely touching the ground. He was glad that while he wasn't tall, being small meant that he was fast.

When he reached her he fell, bony knees digging into the sand. "Rae!" He cried, flipping her over as she turned limply. Her face was completely serene, her eyes closed peacefully. Beast Boy hadn't ever noticed how long her eyelashes were until he saw them now, casting shadows onto he pale cheeks. He shook her by the shoulders a few times, and when he received now reaction, her placed the cloaked girl on her back. He could hear barely hear her heart beat, and there was also another problem; she wasn't breathing.

"Cy, she's not---" Beast Boy was about to report to his friends from their spot yards away, but he was surprised to see that they were already standing right behind him.

"You have to give her CPR," Cyborg told him gravely, and Beast Boy tensed. He wanted to ask why it had to be him, why he had to do the second best thing to making out with _Raven_, who was sure to rip off his arms and beat him with his own appendages, but he knew he was the only option. Cyborg was missing and arm, and would probably crush her, and Starfire didn't even know what CPR was. Beast Boy nodded and took a deep breath, praying to God that saving her life would take Raven's mind off of what he was about to do. Maybe he could make it out with only a slight concussion, perhaps some internal bleeding at best.

He carefully pumped her chest with both hands for a minute, careful not to graze by one of her breasts, and then decided it was now or never. Beast Boy inhaled deeply and leaned forward, placing his lips onto hers.

---

Raven didn't actually need CPR. Because of her demon DNA, if she was ever seriously hurt, her body would automatically shut down and heal itself. Of course, her teammates didn't know this, so that was what landed her in this situation. She wasn't so much "revived" by Beast Boy's mouth-to-mouth. She was jolted back into consciousness because she felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

The shock she had felt before when her hand met Beast Boy's neck was _nothing_ compared to having his lips on hers. It was both excruciatingly painful and extremely enjoyable at the same time. Like before, the dam she had built around her mind began to overflow with nothing but---_Beast Boy_. She felt as if she actually _was_ one with him, connecting to him in an even deeper way that physical touch could not seem to begin express.

She could notice all of the minute details at that moment: the rapid breathing of Beast Boy, the red tint of his green cheeks, the way his fang felt as she ran her tongue over it.

Raven was so overpowered by the feeling of electricity between the two that she hadn't noticed her hands knot themselves into the back of his hair, pressing the changeling into her, hadn't noticed her teammates when her eyes fluttered open, hadn't felt her body shake in ecstasy as she kissed him. Kissing Beast Boy was…

Kissing Beast Boy was…

Kissing….Beast Boy…

Kissing…

_Beast Boy?!?_

Raven remembered herself instantaneously, and released her grip on Beast Boy as soon as she realized what was going on around her. She pushed him away from her body with all of her might and their lips separated with a ridiculous popping noise. Beast Boy landed on his backside, and he kicked his legs into the sand until he was a few feet from her. His eyebrows almost disappeared into his hairline, his eyes wide. One hand was hovering above his lips while he leaned his weight on the other. His face hinted that he was ready to spontaneously combust at any second.

Raven leaned over her knees and coughed violently. She turned her head to the side and threw up for what seemed like hours to her. The burning of what must have been gallons of sea water stung her throat and esophagus, as well as the amount of sand that scratched her tongue on the way out. She could dully sense Beast Boy's humiliation and Cyborg's disgust, but continued to upchuck most of her internal organs. When she was finally done she felt five pounds lighter.

"Friend Raven!" Starfire cried, kneeling beside her and pounding on her back when she continued to cough.

"I'm…fine…"she wheezed, struggling away from Starfire. Having found that Raven no longer needed the rest of her "drowning" punched out of her, Starfire turned to her green teammate.

"Friend Beast Boy, are you doing the act of 'fine' as well?" she asked. Beast Boy nodded his head, still somewhat frozen in shock. Much to both Raven and Beast Boy's embarrassment, Cyborg seemed to have known what was going on.

"What the heck was _that_?" The one-armed robotic teen asked, pointing a finger at Raven accusingly. His face would have been priceless if Raven wasn't so…again, the only word that would fit would be embarrassed. Why, of all emotions, did Beast Boy have to make her feel _embarrassed_? Why did he make her feel _anything_ at all?

Playing her poker face, Raven asked in a normal tone, her throat still burning as if she had taken a sip from a volcano, "What was what?"

"That! _That_!" he answered, waving his arm wildly. "I tell BB to give you CPR, and you two end up rolling around on the beach, makin' ou--" Before he could finish his sentence, a black aura surrounded his mouth and stopped him from speaking. Raven narrowed her eyes and set her face to look so icy that most men would literally wet themselves at the sheer ferociousness of it.

(_Yes, Beast Boy was using CPR on me. And that is all he did. Isn't. That. Right.)_

Raven sent him the message telepathically, as to not alert Starfire of what was going on. The less that had figured out what had happened the better. When she said this, it didn't sound like a question asking if he agreed or not. Her voice dripped with venom and hostility, giving him the impression that if he breathed one syllable of this incident with anyone _ever_ she would slowly kill him.

The cybernetic titan's eye bulged, his mechanic one flashing wildly, but he nodded once to show that he understood. Raven showed no sign that she was pleased with his agreement, but she dispelled the aura around his lips a few seconds later.

Cyborg wouldn't just be missing his arm when she was through with him.

"We should leave," he said slowly, as to make sure she hadn't done anything to his voice modulator. Raven helped herself up and the titans began to walk from the shore. Beast Boy avoided eye contact with her at all times, and Raven wasn't surprised. She was, after all, a monster. Would it be so strange to be freaked out that you had just forcibly made out with a monster? _Although he did kiss me back…_ Raven thought, but immediately after thinking it almost went back and drowned herself. It was just a reaction, she concluded. He was a teenage boy and he had not only human, by animal hormones.

Yes, that made sense, didn't it?

They reached the edge of the beach and Cyborg pulled himself over a slab of land.

"So, who else never wants to go surfing again?" Beast Boy joked half-heartedly. Raven sighed at his "attempt" at humor. At least he was trying to forget what had just happened on the shore and at the tower…and at the pizza shop, for that matter. What a crappy day this turned out to be.

Cyborg glared at him. "Not now, man."

Beast Boy frowned back at him. "Hey, I was just tryin' to---" Raven placed a hand on his shoulder and he slumped forward, calming down a bit. He looked up at her violet eyes and found that they weren't the usual black holes that no emotion passed through, but actually had some sympathy for him. She actually understood that he was _trying_ to keep everyone from having to come face to face with the truth. That they had no leader and that they had been kicked out of their home. He was trying to be nice.

Cyborg knelt to the ground and his index finger whizzed as it changed into a small welding device. He opened up the compartment of his left knee and set out to fix his system that had mysteriously crashed.

"Perhaps I could be of some assistance?" Starfire asked innocently.

"I got it," Cyborg said to her frostily.

"But you are so damaged, and---" She reached out and Cyborg twisted around, thrusting a finger at his knee.

"I said I got it!" he yelled angrily. Starfire's wide eyes went moist and she squeaked.

"Hey, she was only trying to help!" Beast Boy said, defending the red-head. "What is your problem?" He demanded with his hands on his hips. Raven inwardly groaned at the commotion of a fight. The anger in the air was making her temples throb and her tongue puff up.

"Whatd'ya think?" he yelled back at him, as if he would get his point across by giving Raven a migraine. "We go kicked outta our house, a pint-sized poindexter took me for a joy ride, and in case you haven't noticed, I just became left-handed!" He waved his stump of a right arm at Beast Boy.

Raven felt her eyebrow twitch and a bit of her anger leaked out. "Enough!" She had her hand on Beast Boy's shoulder, who was tense and ready to pounce at Cyborg, his fists clenched. "We need to control our emotions." _or I'll go insane_, she wanted to add.

"Or what?" Cyborg asked loudly, his anger exploding out. He had seemed fine on the shore, but the reality of the whole thing must have finally sunk in. "Our bad vibes'll keep you from meditating?" Raven scowled at him, her own anger throwing itself against her mental barrier, trying to crawl free. "I wish Robin were here," Starfire said quietly, rubbing her arms. She really wished not to fight, Raven sensed.

"Well he's not! Don't you guys _get_ _it? _Theywon_, _welost!!_"_ He screamed at the top of his lungs. "_It's over!"_ Raven clawed at the palm of her hands with her nails. What was this to him? A game that they had played?

"Then the Teen Titans are finished?" Beast Boy asked sadly the question on everyone's mind.

"Not yet they're not," a familiar voice said from behind. All four titans whirled around and each one felt their jaws drop. There, on a mound of sand, stood none other then their red-and-green clad leader, Robin. He smiled.

"Not if I can help it."

---

The titans had explained their dilemma to their leader, who was eager to hear what he had missed. As promised, Cyborg (who was now in a much better mood ever since Robin had reappeared,) didn't speak once of the incident on the shore. Beast Boy had no reason to either, and Starfire found that it was just a service from one teammate to another. No harm, no foul.

Robin had then come up with a plan in about zero point three seconds, which made the titans feel ashamed that they had been fighting instead of planning. And they called themselves' _heroes_.

Robin's plan was actually very well thought out. Cyborg put the plan in motion by using his lost am to spy on the H.I.V.E. students, who were taking over the tower. They had even gone to the lengths of transforming the "T" into an "H" and decorating the outside like a hive! Cyborg told his teammates that it was okay for him to continue; Mammoth was raiding the fridge, Gizmo was going through their CD collection, and Jinx was talking about fashion. He said she was trying on Raven's cloak, and said empath groaned. They had looked through her room? At least they hadn't gotten to the Mirror. Now _that_ would have been horrible.

As Cyborg began to hack into the tower's security system, Raven felt her eyes land on Beast Boy. He wasn't looking at her, but was instead watching the Tower excitedly. He was actually _bouncing_ with unused energy. It was all very…cute. It was as if she was watching a five year old. Raven noticed that Cyborg had "kidnapped" Gizmo and the dwarf was now sailing through the room.

Raven herself couldn't wait to get back into the tower. As soon as she heated herself up a cup or two or seven of tea, she was going to haul herself to the library (or her room, which had more books than that tower's library actually held) to research what was going on between her and Beast Boy. That electric feeling…it was beginning to be a problem. It had enveloped her before, derailing her train of thought to the point of her almost forgetting who she was. When she had kissed him---oh, why did that have to sound so completely fine with her?!---she had gone through temporary insanity. She had just snapped, that was all.

She didn't have any feelings for him.

None at all, whatsoever.

She was just…mentally unstable.

Wait, did that actually make her feel better or worse?

Just as she was questioning herself, Beast Boy's eyes flickered up to meet hers. She didn't need to be able to read minds to know what was going through his head. He could have written "Was Raven Staring at Me?" in permanent marker on his forehead to make it less obvious. They stayed like that until the alarm from Titans Towered sounded, slicing through the awkward silence and bathing the area in an eerie red glow from within the main room. Raven threw up her hood and started her part of the plan.

She closed her eyes and pictured the inside of the tower, specifically Jinx. At her will, when she opened her eyes she could see the bewildered sorceress, looking around and throwing off Raven's cloak. Raven broke off a piece of her telekinetic powers and reached through the ceiling of the tower, forming a hand with the black energy. Starfire followed her action by blasting Mammoth out of the room.

Raven grabbed Jinx and yanked her out of the room to the roof, where she knelt on her hands and knees and groaned. Gizmo was still being taken for a wild ride, courtesy of Cyborg as revenge, and screamed as he twisted and turned. Suddenly he was jerked into a different direction and he went straight towards Jinx. She gasped and her eyes widened as Gizmo plowed straight into her, knocking her down, stopping his ride. Starfire had managed to blow Mammoth all the way to the top floor, and he fell backwards next to his other two team members.

"Sorry to interrupt your victory celebration," Robin smirked, catching his utility belt and buckling it around his waist. "But like I said, this isn't over." He frowned, crossing his arms.

"It's just gettin' started," Cyborg finished, twisting in his right arm, which had flown to him once it had released Gizmo. Raven followed after them, feet spread apart and fists held at either side of her body. Starfire flew down beside her and floated a few feet off of the ground. Beast Boy landed on all fours and prepared an animal-like fighting pose.

The H.I.V.E. students brushed themselves off and smirked back that the titans. "Attack pattern alpha!" Jinx commanded, and the other two followed her lead. "Ha!" she cried, thrusting a wave of bad luck towards the titans, who jumped easily out of the way. Beast Boy looked up and squeaked when he saw Mammoth pound his fist down on the spot he had been in less than half a second ago. Beast Boy would have been mulch if he hadn't jumped back and morphed into a crow.

Jinx vaulted off of Cyborg's left shoulder and twisted in mid-air, crossing her arms and sending out her pink rays at him. The tanks around him were hit and came crashing down around him as he danced out of the way. Starfire came to his rescue and shot star bolts at the pink-haired girl, who cart-wheeled out of the way nimbly. She ducked through an opening in the walls the H.I.V.E. had built around the tower and Starfire pursed her.

Cyborg turned to watch if she would come back out when Gizmo attacked him from behind. "Hey robo-wimp. Feel like gettin' hacked?" he asked, producing an electric device as he piggy-backed Cyborg.

"Nope. How 'bout you?" He answered politely. "Robin! Now!"

On cue, Robin tossed one of his many devices, which clung to the boy genius' backpack. It crackled before electrifying his entire system, shocking him so that he cried out in pain. He fell off of Cyborg and started running in circles, his short arms unable to reach the part of his pack the device was on. "Ah! You're gunna crash my whole system!" He whined, stretching his arms. "Get it offa' me! Get it off me!" Just as he screamed the last plea, his backpack transformed into a rocket without his knowledge, sending him flying into the night, leaving only a puff of smoke and the echo of his screams behind him.

Starfire was still chasing Jinx when she leaped underneath the beam Beast Boy was resting on. Starfire stopped and cupped her hands around her mouth, yelling, "Beast Boy! Go!"

Beast Boy gave her the 'okay' sign and jumped down onto Jinx. He flipped in the air, showing off in case Raven or anybody was still watching him, and morphed into a screeching monkey. He chattered happily as he clamped onto Jinx's face, and she screamed in surprise. After all, it wasn't every day that a green monkey attacked your face. Helplessly, she began shooting random waves of bad luck at the unfinished part of the tower before she finally managed to rip Beast boy off of her head. She chucked him away from her with all of her strength and he turned back into a grinning teenage boy again before he hit the floor.

"Your luck just ran out!" he told her once he touched down. Ha! Robin wasn't the only one who could think up cool comments on the spot!

Before the entire building could cave in, he ran from the scene and flew away as a bird. Jinx made a confused sound before it finally hit her. It came to her slowly but she understood what was going on once the first of the pipes exploded. Plain and simple bad luck. Support beam began to come falling down, the entire section collapsing around her.

Talk about backfiring.

In the meantime, Mammoth charged at Raven and swung his fist. Almost too quickly, Raven floated up and out of his reach before he could catch her. She came down again, but Cyborg rammed his shoulder into Mammoth before he could recover. He flew backwards and groaned. As the giant, orange-haired teen started to pick himself up, Beast Boy decided to have some fun. He morphed into a dinosaur and lowered his head next to Mammoth's face. The he roared deafeningly, and Mammoth tossed his hands up and let loose a shrill scream. If dinosaurs could smile, Beast Boy would be smirking directly at him. Mammoth fled from him in the opposite direction and straight towards Starfire.

Starfire spread her arms apart in the air as she let out as much Tamaranian energy she had built up. Her hands and eyes shone bright green as she screamed with effort. Then she used all of her effort to throw the star bolt at Mammoth, who spun in the air before Robin kicked him squarely in the chest. He fell on top of his other two teammates, who were pinned to the ground under his weight. "Crud, I'm callin' Slade," Gizmo grunted, pulling out a small communicator. Robin grabbed him by his collar and brought his face close to Gizmo's.

"Who is Slade?" he asked menacingly.

"Wouldn't you like to know, barf-brain?" Gizmo teased. Robin tried questioning him further but the pipsqueak wouldn't speak another word, but instead chose to smirk at him with known superiority, even as the police came by and shoved them into the squad car.

"Who do you think was telling them what to do?" Robin asked the other titans.

"I don't know, man, but we better clean up this mess," Beast Boy said, looking around at the H shaped home.

What kind of freaks lived in a giant H?

---

"NO!" Beast Boy screamed at the top of his lungs. "This is the worst thing that could ever happen!" He confirmed, over-dramatizing everything, as usual. He had his hands on his head as he stared at the CD shelf in wonder. The titans were looking through the tower to see what the H.I.V.E had done while they had been out. Robin was behind the couch and Cyborg was searching for something worriedly.

"My tunes! They've been…" he shuddered, "alphabetized." He bit his lip and began the difficult task or re-disorganizing his CD's. What kind of monster _alphabetized_ things? "How am I ever going to find anything?" He asked himself in disbelief, flinging CD's behind him. Raven came from upstairs at the same time with two identical cloaks in her hands, both blue.

"They went into my room," she announced seriously. "No one should ever go into my room." She said it in a tone that made Beast Boy certain that he would never think of going in her room ever if he wanted to stay alive.

Starfire gasped as she whipped her head out of the refrigerator. "Someone has disposed of all of our blue furry food."

Cyborg laid down on his stomach, picking up the edge of the couch. "You gotta be kidding me!" He cried. "The whole place gets cleaned and I still can't find the---"

Robin whistled and pointed down at the coffee table---which Beast Boy didn't know why they had because none of them drank coffee---at the mystical object that had been lost so long ago. Cyborg laughed and let go of the couch. Robin picked it up and started to aimlessly flick through channels as Cyborg took his seat next to him. Starfire went to stand beside the couch and Beast Boy crouched in front of them.

"I guess…we really aughta be trainin' for battles, trackin' down clues, and tryin' to figure out who Slade is, huh?" Cyborg sighed. Robin smiled.

"We will," Robin said surely. "But right now I'm just glad to be a part of the team."

The team started to watch television and argued over what station to stay on while Raven left to go to her room. Television was just a waste of time that killed brain cells and made you think like Beast Boy, or some at least some brain dead monkey. _Beast Boy…_

Raven picked up the pace of her walking cycle until she was safely behind the closed door of her room. The dark lighting, the strange statues, the rows of books; it was all so welcoming to her. But right now she didn't have time to admire her room---right now she had to find out what was wrong with her. If the electric feeling was because of her powers, then something horrible might happen if she didn't get it under control. She decided to start with a book of her home dimension, Azar.

She pulled a very old, very thick book from her shelf, blowing off the dust from the spine. In bold Azarathian it read "The Book of Azar: Volumes 1-10". Raven searched through the book well into the night, flipping through pages that meant nothing to her.

When she found what she was looking for she suppressed the urge to scream.

_This isn't possible…._

_---_

**Ooh, cliff-hanger~ You have no idea what I have in store for these two little lovers! I apologize for some repeated words, this was completed sometime around midnight. I might fix it later on, but not tonight. If you want to know what's going to happen next, then review, because you won't find out until then!**


	4. Forces of Nature

**To everyone that has been reading my story, your reviews are what keeps me going on! Without them, I don't think I'd get any inspiration out of this. I apologize for the delay on this chapter, it's taken me a long time to write it and it's not even that good. Please don't find this too cliche, because I plan on doing so much fluff-filled evil with this :D Enjoy and remember to review!**

---

_Soulmates_.

Raven had read the word over again…

…and again, and again once more.

Raven rubbed her eyes until she thought she had broken a blood vessel, thinking that she had merely read the word wrong. She blinked twice, blew on the page to clear any mysterious dust that might have affected the shape of the symbols, and read it once more.

The word did not change, saying clearly in Azarathian exactly what was going on. Raven was too astonished to even make a sign of acknowledgement. She was so, so tired from an entire night of researching that her eyes were dry from the lack of moisture on the pages and her fingers felt numb from flipping over chapters. But as tired as she was, her mind understood what this meant, what the shocking feeling she had whenever she touched Beast Boy was, why she had lost control of herself completely before.

_Soulmates._

The word was so…ridiculous. It sounded like a term someone like Starfire would use to describe her relationship with Robin. Stupid and girly were also words that came to mind. The thought that two people were destined to be together, had waited an eternity to meet and become lovers, was something Raven considered ludicrous. And yet, there she was, bent over a book with who-knew-how-many pages and reading all about it, eating up every word with half-lidded eyes.

_Soulmates_.

Was that really what they were? Two halves of the same soul? Her and _Beast Boy_, of all people in the world? Six billion people on the planet, and counting, and she was stuck with _Beast Boy_ as a soulmate? Where was the fairness in that? A stupid, green, smelly, unfunny---

_Soulmates_.

Whether she liked it or not, that's what they were. Raven finally felt her vocal cords catch up with her mind when she let out a low moan. This was one of the worst injustices the world could unleash upon her. Her eyes trailed downward and she continued to read the words she had already memorized on the first day of her discovery.

"_**Soulmates**_

There is a belief, more a theory that Azarathians of all ages share. Azarathians believe that there is a purpose for all and that every being has an exact opposite and an exact match. Because Azarath religion consists of a pacifistic group of people, they consider this principle to be one related strongly to love. It is said that souls of all kinds have a perfect match, a mate that they will forever love no matter what should fall between the two. It is more commonly known today as the soulmate principle.

This principle states that most humans cannot find their soulmate because of the population and way that the world is divided. A human can go through their entire life without realizing their soulmate, feeling happy and perhaps falling in love, but never complete. It is said that soulmates are two halves of the same soul, and that together they complete the other. Soulmates are beings that were literally made for each other. One might say that the two have "known each other from Eden."

While humans only find their soulmates coincidentally, there have been tales of psychics who have been able to connect with their soulmate. Most times they have been able to get physical and or mental signs that direct them to the person. Some ways psychics have contacted their soulmate is by mental images giving them indirect messages about this person. Other ways can be by strengthening the psychic bond and connecting the two in a way that would allow both to read the others mind. Sometimes, it can be by just looking into the other's eyes. Lastly, there is a more rare way to tell if you have met your soulmate; by physical touch. Only one being has been recorded to have found their soulmate by touch. The being had described it as 'being struck by lightening, tenfold.'

It was said that some people haven't been able to truly connect with their soulmate and have even rejected them, because---"

Raven shut the book and yawned. She'd had enough of this blasphemy. This was obviously some kind of…a trick, of some sort. Perhaps she had truly gone insane and the feeling she had been getting was only in her mind. Perhaps the stress of being a superhero was starting to get to her. Whatever the reason, Raven knew one thing.

Beast Boy _could not be _her soulmate, if such a thing even existed. And even if he was---which she was sure he was not---that didn't mean she had to acknowledge it. There was a popular saying she was thinking of, "ignorance is bliss", Raven thought it was.

She was sick of reading the theories of Azarathians, sick of being connected to Beast Boy by some strange psychic relationship. She crawled over to her bed and threw open the sheets, too tired to change into a nightgown. The familiar scent of laundry detergent surrounded her and she adjusted her pillow before falling asleep.

Just as she slipped into a nonsensical dream, Raven wondered about one of the sentence she had glanced over while reading. It was a thought that she couldn't remember when she woke up, but at the time, Raven pondered if it was possible for her perfect match and exact opposite to be the same person.

---

Beast Boy grunted and moaned as he struggled to pull a long line of elastic onto a pole. Thunder and lightening boomed loudly from outside, but he ignored it. What was a little rain when he had such an ingenious plan ahead of him? He was in the form of a buffalo-yak-thing---Beast Boy wasn't really sure of what it was actually called---and was preparing for a simple concept: revenge. When he was satisfied with the elastic bands placement, he morphed back into a human and took out the water balloon he had hidden in his pocket. He brought the beautiful pink balloon of wonder to his face and chuckled evilly. "This is gonna be _so sweet!_" He declared to himself, weighing the balloon in one hand.

"What are you doing?"

The emotionless voice cut through the silence that had fallen in the air and nearly gave Beast Boy a heart attack. He yelped in surprise and juggled the balloon to keep from dropping it---God forbid; he needed the precious little thing. He caught the balloon in his hands and sighed with relief as he clutched it to his chest, then turned to face the owner of the voice, even though he knew who it was before he saw her face. He would always be able to know who that voice belonged to.

Raven stood on the other side of the elastic band, eyeing it with distaste. Her hood was down for a change, revealing her face and hair. Violet hair and pale skin, Beast Boy thought. What a combination. Then again, green hair and greens skin wasn't the best match ever, either. She glanced up at him with a neutral expression, although it was clear she disapproved of whatever he was planning. "Please tell me this isn't another ridiculous prank."

Well, that was an easy one. Of course it wasn't!

"Okay, it's not a ridiculous prank," he answered confidently as he placed his hands on his hips. "It's a brilliant one!" he laughed. Raven rolled her eyes in a hopeless manner. What was her deal? Just because she didn't have a fun bone in her body didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy a good old fashioned prank. Didn't she like art? ---and what better art was the beauty of a prank being perfected?

"Alright, check it out," Beast Boy said. He had the strangest feeling to explain this to her. Maybe then she'd appreciate his brilliance a little bit more. "Remember how Cyborg put red dye in my shampoo and I turned brown for two days?"

His eyebrows furrowed together and he cringed at the memory or having everyone---_everyone_---pointing at him and laughing. It had been downright humiliating to have his two best friends constantly make dirty jokes about his skin color for that time period. Starfire had enjoyed herself, and even _Raven _had laughed at him.

He smirked nastily and his eyes glinted maliciously. "Well sister, it's payback time!" He punched his palm and started to explain. "I give you The Beast Boy Insta-Lube 9000! See, when Chrome-Dome steps around the corner, his foot tugs the string, the string trips the lever, the lever releases the mother of all rubber bands---"

Beast Boy smiled and rubbed the balloon like a crystal ball before placing it carefully in the middle of the elastic band. "---Which sends a balloon load of motor oil flying right at him, and Boosh!" He yelled, throwing arms up in the air and waving them around madly. Now that would _have_ to impress her! "Pretty clever, huh?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"…You're a genius," she replied sarcastically.

"It's just a good, clean/dirty fun," he tried again, looking at her through half-closed eyes. She was actually kind of…nice looking, he had to admit, even if she was staring apathetically at him with enough intensity to make him feel like he was going to burst into flames. More than nice looking. She was pretty. He would never admit that to any breathing human being out loud, of course, but it was okay for him to think it, right? There wasn't anything wrong with thinking his not-friend Raven was pretty, right?

Before she could kneel down and praise his smartness, he heard someone enter the hallway. The heavy footsteps that _had_ to belong to Cyborg echoed softly off the walls and his ears twitched as he strained to listen. "Here he comes!" Beast Boy whispered loudly, pulling Raven out of the way. He crouched behind the corner with Raven behind him as he peeked around it, smiling happily. He couldn't _wait_ to see Cy's face when he was splattered with motor oil!

"I do not think---" Raven started.

"Shh!" Beast Boy blew through his closed lips, pressing a finger against his mouth. What was she trying to do? Alert Cy of their position?

"But what if---"

"Shh!"

Raven sighed and gave up. If he wanted to play his stupid games, then fine. If he wanted to drag her along for the ride and have her kneeling next to him, then fine.

If he didn't want to know that Cyborg wasn't the one walking this way, then fine.

She decided to stay quiet and let him find that out on his own. She hid with him in the shady corner and looked up, where he was placed perfectly in her line of vision. She wasn't staring, she wasn't watching. He was just…there. No problem with simply looking straight ahead and having Beast Boy just _happen_ to be in her way, right? His happiness was coming off of him in waves.

He truly was her exact opposite. How in Azar's name could he be her _soulmate?_ There obviously had to be some kind of mistake. _Obviously._

"Why are we hiding?" Someone whispered from behind.

"SHH!" Beast Boy whispered, more belligerently this time. Raven was satisfied when she sensed his eyes go wide, his surprise engulfing him. He screamed, twisting around aggressively and throwing his finger up at Cyborg, who was sitting behind Raven, his large body crushed into the tight space. "Cyborg? You can't be Cyborg!"

"I can't?" Cyborg asked, distressed.

"If you're you, then who's…" Beast Boy trailed off and leaned over to see who was going to be the butt-end of his prank gone wrong. The footsteps grew louder as the person rounded the corner, and when Beast Boy spotted the purple boots, he gasped. As Starfire triggered the wire, he jumped from behind the corner and ran to catch the balloon, but he didn't seem to run fast enough. It was too late to save her now.

Starfire 'eeped' before the balloon connected with her face. The disgusting smell filed Beast Boy's nostrils, and he was glad Raven didn't have to smell it. Stupid extra-sensitive nose! Starfire was soaked with the oil from the tip of her head all the way down to her shoulders, the foul substance dripping from her hair.

"Starfire!" Beast Boy cried, reaching a hand out. The heavy feeling of shame sunk his stomach, making his legs feel like led and his head feel too light. Oh, this was so not cool!

"You okay?" Cyborg called after he had followed.

Starfire blinked away the oil so that she could see and gazed up at them with a child-like innocence. "This is punishment?" she asked sincerely, making Beast Boy feel even worse. "I…did something wrong?"

Cyborg grinned nervously at her while Raven replied. "You didn't; _he _did," she said with her eyebrows bunched together, signaling to Beast Boy. Beast Boy blinked and looked back at Starfire, who was on the floor and still wide-eyed. He grinned sheepishly, his ears flattening against his head.

"Star, it was---You weren't supposed to---I---" Beast Boy squeaked. He looked back at Raven and Cyborg for moral support. Raven had to have his back on this! He had even explained to her that this prank was meant for Cyborg! Instead of immediately backing him up and trying to help him clean up this mess, she had her eyes narrowed with a smug sense of satisfaction on her features. Okay, so maybe he should have listened to her before, but how was he supposed to know that _Starfire_, of all people, would end up getting hit?

Beast Boy felt his cheeks flush as he grew more and more flustered. This wasn't meant to happen! He was supposed to have a good laugh at Cyborg when the balloon saturated him with oil and he ended up smelling for a few days. It was supposed to be quick, clean, and _meant for Cyborg!_

"I didn't mean---" Beast Boy's eyes flickered from Cyborg, who was watching him expectantly, and Starfire, who looked like a lost puppy. The look made Beat Boy feel like he had just stepped on a kitten. Automatically, he tried to make her laugh to keep her from crying. "Heh, just remember to change that oil every three thousand miles." His nervous chuckles faded out unsurely and he scratched the back of his head.

Now she was mad---drat.

Starfire jumped up and clenched her fists. At five feet and six inches, she towered over Beast Boy, who stood at a mere five feet. She glared down at him through the muck. "On my planet, we have a name for those who do such horrible things." Oh, God, she was shaking she was so angry. This _really_ wasn't cool. As she leaned closer to him, Beast Boy bent backwards until he was nearly on the floor. His eyes were wide and his lip was quivering on its own. "You are a---a---a CLORBAG BARBLERNELK!" Starfire thundered, and Beast Boy fell back into Cyborg.

"A what-bag?" He asked Cyborg, looking up at him helplessly. He felt that horrible feeling a person gets when they were the only one who thought something was funny. Like someone who was the individual one to laugh at something in a room full of silent people, Beast Boy wanted to shrink into the floor.

"You heard the lady," Cyborg told him.

Raven shook her head. "You are such, a clorbag," she sighed. Beast Boy frowned at her; she didn't even know what that meant!

Starfire's eyes were glowing with anger now. Anger and pure Tamaranian power, which was also pretty dangerous, too. "C'mon you guys, can't anybody take a joke?" He asked, splaying his palms. Lightening stuck, bathing the room in an eerie light before returning it to regular. The tower shook and everyone ducked at the noise.

"Titans, trouble!" Robin called from down the hall. Lightening stuck again, masking their leader in darkness before he was visible again.

"What's wrong now?" Beast Boy yelled over the sudden clap of thunder. Although he knew that trouble meant something bad, he was secretly happy that there was something to take the attention off of him at the moment. An alien invasion, a hostage situation---anything to keep Starfire from blasting him through a wall!

"There's been an accident on the highway; we need to move out now!" Robin ordered, and the titans began to file out. As the last of the team left, Beast boy crouched by the window sill. He hated flying in the rain; the water made his wings heavy and he could hurt himself trying too hard. He glanced up at the sky, which was dark and cloudy, and was surprised to see that it wasn't raining. Well, that was odd. Didn't precipitation usually come with thunder and lightning?

Beast Boy shrugged and nearly jumped out of his skin when another bolt of lightning flashed through the sky. He jerked forward by accident, and that was all it took before he was suddenly free-falling outside the tower. Even if he tried transforming into a bird or something, it was too late for him. He was going to fast and he would splatter on the ground any shape he was in. God damned gravity! He squeezed his eyes shut and waited until he hit the ground, waited until his neck would snap under the weight of his tiny body, waited until his stupid little accident would end the fifth member of the Teen Titans existance.

"Wah!" Beast Boy cried as he felt his body wrench in mid-air. His legs and arms dangled only a few feet from the ground as he floated, suspended in the air by a black aura.

"You're lucky no one saw that," Raven told Beast Boy with her back to him. She turned around and threw up her hood. "Now let's go before you get in serious trouble."

Beast Boy grinned. "Aw, I didn't think you cared so much, Rae!" Raven scoffed and he was dropped---more like he was thrown----onto the dirt ground. He whined like a hurt dog and rubbed his sore head. He looked up at her with his signature puppy-dog eyes, and he was satisfied to hear the faint thudding of her heartbeat increase for one millisecond before going back into its regular pattern. That was pretty cool; he didn't know he had that kind of effect on her. If he could remember correctly, a while ago when they had first met the H.I.V.E. students, the same thing had happened too.

"That hurt," he complained.

"It was supposed to," she answered breezily, levitating off of the floor and flying after the rest of the group, who were already a few meters ahead. "Wait up!" Beast Boy screamed before transforming into a pterodactyl and following the blue-cloaked girl.

As they flew to the scene, Robin informed them of what was going on. Two guys were trashing the place, snapping wires and cracking the pavement. The catch was this---they had superpowers. Robin said he wasn't sure what they were yet, but he alerted the team that they should be ready to deal with anything.

At least this would be an interesting fight, Beast Boy thought. They hadn't fought any super powered dudes in a while. And if he was lucky, the fight would make Starfire completely forget about the prank. That would have put a smile on his face if he had enough facial muscles at the moment.

Dinosaurs, what are you going to do?

His beady eyes darted over to Starfire for a moment, who was carrying Cyborg from under his arms, then to Raven, who was flying through the air with her cloak flapping behind her. She was one strange Goth girl. First she was the brooding outcast that hated his guts, then she was his friend, then she was ratting him out to Star, and _then_ she was saving him from falling out of a twenty-to-thirty story building. Was she bipolar or did she just liked to confuse him?

The bridge was starting to come into view, and a loud boom came from somewhere near the middle. At the same time, a bright flash came down from the heavens and blinded Beast boy for a second. The titans were now closer to the scene and then---now they were a part of the scene, watching first-hand what was going on from atop a truck. Cars skidded out of the way as a swirl of blue light surrounded the area. People unlocked their doors and ran, while others stood and watched.

Two teenage dudes, about their age, were laughing hysterically over something. One was blue and maybe as big as Cyborg was, with markings on his face. He had a samurai-style hat on, with sapphire bands and bracelets going down his arms. He wore matching armor with the picture of a cloud on his chest. The other was much smaller, his spiky hair held back with an orange band. His arms were covered with similar jewelry, but in gold and silver. His armor was orange with a lightening bolt across the chest cavity. Beast Boy heard a fragment of what they were laughing over.

"---most amusing!" the smaller one declared in a squeaky voice.

"Sorry to break it to you," Robin said smartly, pointing at the two, "but you guys have a lousy sense of humor." He narrowed his eyes. "This ends, now."

This seemed to anger yellow-head. "No one gives orders to Thunder and Lightning!" He screamed, throwing his arm back and a ball of electricity materialized in his palm. "Taste my power!"

Taste my power? What kind of dweeb used those kinds of lines? Beast Boy wondered.

The team jumped from the van just before it exploded. From the cloud caused by the blast flew Starfire, who fired star bolts at Lightning with enough speed to cause him to jump over vans and fire back. The two took turns shooting at each other, destroying empty cars that drivers had abandoned in a mad dash to escape, until Lightning managed to blow Starfire onto her butt.

Cyborg and Thunder went head on with each other, catching their opponents' punches in one hand. Both took their free hand back and activated their powers; Thunder began summoning the power of nature he drew his abilities from while Cyborg's right arm quickly transformed into a canon. Their two fists collided and a sonic boom occured, the two super-teens skidding back almost one hundred feet. Cyborg landed on his back and sparks flew up into the air as the metal of his torso scraped the street. Thunder flipped and landed nimbly on a cloud he had created, floating high enough so that he could see over the bridge. Thunder drew his hands back and grunted in effort as he let loose a flare of sound at Robin.

The boy wonder back flipped onto the railing of the bridge and landed on his feet. Thunder sent another explosion of raw sound at him again, mangling the metal as Robin twisted until he was standing on his hands. Thunder landed on last blow, which caused a cable to snap. There was an eruption of sparks and the next thing Beast Boy saw was Robin riding on the cable as it snapped around. He jumped from behind Thunder and flipped him off of his almighty cloud.

Lightning laughed as he sent a blast of light towards Raven, who barely managed to doge the attack. This was getting very tedious, she decided. If this didn't stop, she'd never be able to properly meditate. She lifted her fists to her face in case Lightning decided to land any close range blows and floated down closer to him. She sent a series of kicks to his head, which he blocked with crossed arms. Scowling, the spiky haired boy took his hands back and allowed his powers to draw the electricity from the air. Raven was hit in the center of her chest before she could react, thrown backwards as she landed on her back with a grunt.

Beast Boy snarled angrily. Did he really think he could get away with hurting Raven around him? The most overpowering sense of protection washed over him, his vision turning red for a small second before he charged at Lightning. He morphed into a panda bear and gripped him in a hug that crushed Lightning's arms to his scrawny body. Lightning laughed before using his powers as a kind of taser. Beast Boy yelped as he morphed from panda form back to human form, his arms still tightly wrapped around the gold-clad teen. Finally, before he thought his brain was going to melt into pudding and his bones turned to mush, Beast Boy released him and fell to the floor.

"You're powers are strong," Lightning said as he broke through, electricity crackling in the air, "but mine are stronger!"

Beast Boy groaned and rubbed his head, which was pounding and gave him a slight buzzed feeling. He was leaning against a pile of rocks, moaning as he tried to get rid of the shocked feeling going through his body. He gasped as a clap of thunder cracked through the air. Thunder stood above him, fists ready. "Your power of the animals is impressive, green one," Thunder admitted. He took a fighting stance and gathered energy from around him. "Rise, so we may do battle."

Beast Boy stared up at him. "Why are you _doing this_?" he wondered aloud. These jerks looked more like party guys out for a good time than criminals with nothing to do. This was more of a boredom-relief plan than an evil plot to begin world domination.

"Because it is not sporting to attack an unready opponent," Thunder answered, misinterpreting the question. Beast Boy picked himself up and shook his head.

"No! Why are you wrecking everything?"

Thunder looked shaken for a second. "Uh…because it is amusing," he said, making the statement sound more like a question.

Beast Boy scoffed and threw his arm in the direction of the turned over cars, people hiding behind them and cowering in fear. "Do _they_ look amused?" he asked with a note of irritation. From behind him a few surviving people crawled out from behind their cars, their faces pale and their eyes wide.

Now Thunder looked extremely confused. "I…"

"This isn't funny!" Beast Boy scolded angrily, pointing an accusing finger at Thunder, who dropped his hands and looked down ashamedly. "It's wrong!"

Before he could continue to discipline the giant, he was sent flying back by a burst of lightning. Every part of his body felt like it was on fire for a fleeting second before he lost the feeling in his body. His nerves were set crazy, the animal instincts in his body starting to panic insanely inside him. His head felt hot and he could smell the smoke coming from his hair, but he knew he wasn't on fire. He blinked a few times, dazed. He could see the hazy outline of Lightning as he palled around with his brother as if they hadn't put an entire bridge-load of people in danger and flew off, but couldn't hear anything until he shook his head. Strangely, the silence was even more deafening then any kind of screaming.

"Huh, well that was a shock," he joked to Starfire, who was passing by.

She didn't even look at him as she snorted. "Humph!"

Beast Boy felt the smile drop from his face. "So, I'm guessing you're still mad?"

_(Thanks for the update, Captain Obvious.)_

He heard Raven's voice in his head and clamped his hands around his mouth to prevent from screaming. Beast Boy glanced at Raven and saw that she was smirking at his surprise. Oh, right; he had forgotten that she could communicate with her mind. Childishly, he stuck his tongue out at her, which made her roll her eyes.

Her pretty, violet eyes.

Her pretty violet eyes that looked so wide under her hood.

There wasn't anything weird about thinking that his not-friend had pretty eyes, was there?

He picked himself up again and walked over to the rest of the group. Cyborg helped Raven up from the floor and Beast Boy felt the strangest twinge of…anger? No, that was too intense. But it was something…some kind of feeling that made him irked that someone else besides him had picked Raven up after she fell. _He _was the one who helped her up. _He _was the one who brushed her off. _He _was the one who caught her when hse fell.

Always.

He suppressed the weird irritation and caught Robin say, as he brushed himself off, "Okay team, we have to find those guys before they cause anymore damage." He turned and pointed to each member of the titans. "Cyborg, search the west side. Raven, the east. I'll take the downtown. Beast Boy, you and Starfire scan from the skies."

Beast Boy twitched. He glanced at Raven, whose soulless eyes were boring into him. It made him want to shiver. He raised his hand as if he were being asked a question in class. "Um, maybe Cyborg should come with me instead?"

Robin frowned. "Cyborg…can't fly."

Beast Boy looked from Robin, to Raven, to Robin again, then to his partner Starfire. Her arms were crossed and she refused to look at him. This was bad. "Oh. 'Kay."

"Have a nice flight, my little clorbag," Cyborg laughed as he pinched Beast Boy's cheek. Beast Boy shut his eyes and sighed. This was _really_ bad; one unnaturally strong girl that was holding a grudge against him and could easily snap his twig-like arms.

Starfire opened one eye and said, to Robin, "Yes, Robin." Then she started to walk away to a spot where she could kick off the ground easily. Beast Boy let his face melt into something resembling misery before he turned around on his heels to follow the red-head. Cyborg went his own way, as did Robin. Beast Boy only managed to take two steps before someone caught him by the arm. He jerked reflexively after seeing it was Raven. Why oh why did his instincts make him feel so _afraid_ of her?

"At least _try_ to apologize," she said lowly, so that the others wouldn't hear her. Beast Boy imagined what kind of image she had to keep up. What would the others think if they saw her being nice to him, of all people? Wasn't she supposed to hate him, though?

Beast Boy felt his eyes dart wildly around her before he looked into her eyes. Her pretty violet eyes that looked so big under her hood, that almost took his breath away. They seemed…like black holes. Emotion went by but was sucked in before anyone could get a glimpse at them. But they were still pretty, nonetheless. Beast Boy automatically felt his body go rigid from her touch and he started to hyperventilate as he stared into her eyes, her black hole eyes that were the strangest color, that were so big, so wide, so pretty…

Believing that she had scared him, Raven released her hold on him and took a step back. She must think I'm afraid of her, Beast Boy realized. That I don't like her.

"_Uh, okay,_" Beast Boy said in a voice that sounded too high to even belong to him. In only two words, his voice seemed to find every opportunity to crack. He was getting nervous---not good. His palms started to sweat from underneath his gloves, which seemed way too heavy to him, and he felt his spine go cold. Raven refused to break eye contact with him, which made him feel even more agitated. She looked like she was watching him, studying him, judging him---_looking at my soul_, Beast Boy added with surprising clarity. That seemed to define what he thought she was doing perfectly.

Beast Boy looked away from her eyes, focusing on the area next to her head, and the feeling went away. He started to breathe more normally, his heart rate going down to a regular thumping. Beast Boy didn't want to look at her eyes again, and at the same time he was dying to. He looked once more at her violet irises, and felt his stomach heave. He smiled in a way that made it feel like his face might split. "Bye."

Raven nodded and turned with a swish of her cloak. Beast Boy watched her fly off and sighed with relief…or was it disappointment?

He looked up and saw that Starfire had already taken off without him. "Star, wait for me!" He screamed, bounding down the path before leaping off of the bridge and morphing into a bird.

---

Raven looked around from her spot in the eastern part of the city and frowned. She had gone up these streets several times, and not one sign of the two chaotic brothers. Raven flew up to the top of a low skyscraper and sat on the ledge. She was getting weary of looking up and down the same streets and figured that she could take a small break. Besides, from her position up here she could spot any kind of action. After all, how hard would it be to find tow destructive teenagers blow up the city piece by piece?

She sighed with content as her legs dangled several hundred feet in the air. The lights of the city twinkled around her dully in the nighttime. What to do on her short little break? Raven decided that she might as well do a bit of meditation while she was free, and crossed her legs as she closed her eyes and began to chant.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

"_Azarath, Mentrion, Zinthos._"

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

"_Azarath, Mentrion, Zin---_"

A car alarm went off and startled Raven, breaking her concentration. Her eyes snapped open and suddenly, she wasn't in her body, overlooking the east side of the city as she sat on the miniature skyscraper. She was…someone, flying over the city, with her arms spread out on either side of her body, the wind blowing through her long, red hair as it whipped behind her.

Long red hair? Flying over the city?

Oh, so she must be Starfire, Raven realized with regularity. The alarm from the car must have scared her---no, she did not get scared. _Startled her---_to the point where she had accidentally reached out to Starfire with her powers. Starfire started to glide gently down and in seconds she was staring at the ruins of a community mall. Columns were smashed together like dominoes, the main center piece thrown to the side. As Starfire's feet touched the roof of a building, a bird cooed from behind her and Beast Boy landed clumsily after her. _Must he always be so off balance?_ Raven wondered to herself.

Beast Boy surveyed the area and grinned, stroking his non-existent beard. **"Well, either they were just here, or this is the ugliest modern art I've ever seen."**

_You aren't funny! _Raven mentally screamed.

"**You are not funny," **Starfire said evenly, and Raven wished that she could taste Beast Boy's embarrassment over not getting someone to laugh at his stupid jokes. **"You are a clorbag barblernelk."** Starfire floated down to the mall's entrance to study the damage further, perhaps gain some more clues. Beast Boy followed soon after.

"**C'mon Star! You can't stay mad forever!" **Beast Boy whined as he walked next to Starfire. **"What, do I have to do the face? You know you can't resist the face!"** As if to prove his point further, Beast Boy shrunk into kitten form and Raven inwardly groaned. She knew---_just knew_---what he was going to do. This wasn't just any face; this was The Face. The same face that made her heart skip two beats (forget skipping one beat, that would make his abilities on her much more bearable!) Starfire glanced down at the green kitten, with its wide eyes and slightly disheveled fur. It meowed for affect. While Starfire was doing an unbelievably amazing job at pretending that he wasn't adorable, Raven felt her breath catch and her heart pound. That kitten was _designed_ to make females coo, and unfortunately for Raven, she was no exception.

"**Humph," **Starfire grunted as she passed, being careful not to step on the goddess forsaken thing. Raven wasn't all that shocked, but she was a bit irritated---Starfire had managed to walk by the same face, _The Face_, which made Raven's heart give in.

How did she manage that?

_Because she's not his soulmate, _a voice in the back of her mind told her quietly, but Raven quickly squelched that thought.

Beast Boy _was not_ her soulmate.

"**She resisted the face!" **Raven heard Beast Boy cry from behind Starfire. Oh, how strange it was not to taste anyone's emotions! As much as she hated the burden, the headache and the disgusting flavors, it felt so out of place not to know what the people around her were feeling. Starfire went to stare at the charred remains of the main attraction's former stand. It was melted as if struck by lightning. **"Just talk to me, Star! C'mon, this is no fun!"**

Beast Boy was on his knees, his hands clamped together in a pleading manner. Raven would have snorted with amusement if she was allowed to feel that kind of emotion. Starfire ignored him again, focusing all of her energy and concentration on the smoldering stump.

A noise came from up in the sky, and both Starfire and Beast Boy looked in the direction of the sound. There was a blue streak of light before Raven could see Thunder riding atop his cloud, building up energy long enough to hold a solid stream of sound. Lightning flew after him, a flash of gold in the dark of night. Together their laughter chimed through the cold air, chilling Raven's bones. As they guffawed, they threw out their arms and combined the deafening roar of thunder and the painful shock of lightning in one giant, massive string of power and fired it at the two titans. Before it could hit, Raven was yanked out of Starfire's mind.

The demon girl gasped as she opened her eyes again, looking out in her position on the skyscraper. The car alarm had gone silent and only the hushed murmur of the city went on below her. Raven wiped a hand over her forehead, surprised to see it was coated with a thin sheet of sweat. Her eyes shot around her in the darkness and she stood on shaky legs. That little trip had taken much energy out of her. She lifted her hood and wiped away the dampness on her forehead.

She flew off to retrieve her fellow teammates before someone was seriously injured.

She could only hope she made it in time.

---

Beast Boy felt every hair on the back of his neck stand up as he fled from Lightning. Starfire had run in a different direction, leading Thunder to her easily in a corner, and that had left Beast Boy with Shockie, the element of lightning himself. The familiar feeling of adrenaline pumping through his body felt like an extreme high, his heart in his throat. The crazy laughter of Lightning trailed from somewhere behind him, and he leaped out of the way of an oncoming lightning bolt as a rabbit before it could fry him. Lighting chased him and fired again, causing Beast Boy to fly into the air and doge the bolt of electricity as a cockatoo. He made a distressed noise as a bolt grazed his feathers.

Beast Boy dropped to the floor as a mouse, squeaking as he ran towards Lightning and missed rapid bursts of lightning as he serpentined. Time to go on the offensive.

Lightning laughed gleefully. "Your animal forms cannot protect you forever!"

Just as he told him that, Beast Boy rammed into Lightning with all of his might as a yak, his horns knocking the elemental teen right in the chest. Beast Boy heard him gasp as the wind was knocked out of him and was satisfied when he tumbled once he hit the ground.

Thunder grunted and attempted to blow Starfire away with a wave of his energy. Just before it connected with her, Starfire cried out and let loose a green bolt of light that fought back the thunderous blue power. Thunder's eyes widened considerably as she slowly beat over his will. She bellowed with effort, and before he knew it, Thunder was thrown into the opposite side of the outdoor mall.

Beast Boy growled in the form of a black bear, one of his most ferocious mammal choices, and stood up on his hid legs as Starfire battled with Lightning. Thunder backed away, giving Beast Boy the opening he was looking for. Beast Boy fell back down on all fours and threw Thunder into the concrete wall. Thunder moaned as he slid down, a crack in the cement of the wall.

Beast Boy, completely in his element now, grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt. "I don't wanna hurt you," he warned, bringing the blue teenagers face close to his own. "And I don't think you wanna hurt me."

"Pain does not amuse us," Thunder agreed sullenly.

"Could'a fooled me!" Beast Boy yelled, tightening his grip on his shirt. "Keep playin' rough and innocent people'll get hurt!"

A look of realization crossed Thunder's face, and Beast Boy helped him back to his feet. Thunder was about to speak when a giant pillar of red light blasted through the different domino-like blocks in the shopping center. The blocks shattered into enormous shards of stone, which toppled over onto Starfire, who couldn't seem to fly away fast enough. "Star!" Beast Boy screamed. Debris clouded the area before Beast Boy whipped his head around.

Starfire was no where to be found.

Beast Boy, completely forgetting the two destructive brothers, sprinted towards the ruins. He dove in as a spider and crawled around in the stones for what seemed like hours before he finally came back out. When he looked around, the two brothers had disappeared, as well as the person the red beam of light had come from. "Star?" He asked timidly.

No reply, nothing.

"Starfire?"

Silence.

Beast Boy started to breathe faster. "Where are you?"

He went to the edge of the ruins and started to toss away chunks of rock. Maybe he could dig her out if he couldn't drag her out.

"C'mon, gimme a sign here! You have to be alright, okay?" He started to ramble but allowed it to pour out in a torrent. "'Cuz I---It was just a joke, you know, back at the tower? And…" He swallowed a lump in his throat.

_Raven was right; I should have apologized when I had the chance!_

"I'm sorry," he whimpered to no one. "I never said it but I'm really, really sorry. It was supposed to be funny, and you could've been hurt!" His temples throbbed as he forced himself not to cry. Crying was for little kids and bratty teenagers who think the world hated them; not for superheroes. He grunted as he lifted a particularly heavy rock. "And I'm a total clorbag…" he finished as he gave up his search. He sat on the floor and rubbed his head.

A shadow was cast over his body and he twisted around to see Starfire beaming at him sweetly. "Huh?" She wasn't under all of the rocks? She wasn't dead? She was okay?

Without noticing it, a grin broke out on his face. "Starfire!" He yelled, throwing himself in her arms as a kitten. It'd be way too weird if he just hugged her. He hugged Raven if the situation called for it, but that was a different story. Besides, chicks liked kittens, right?

Starfire giggled as he nuzzled his head to her stomach. "I am glad you are unharmed as well."

Beast Boy slipped from her grasp and was on his knees in seconds, begging for forgiveness. "I am _so_ sorry!" Once he had started apologizing, the words just seemed to slip out. "You gotta forgive me!"

Starfire put her hands on his shoulders and helped him up. "I already have. Now those evil brothers must be made to apologize."

Beast Boy frowned. "I don't think they are evil. I think they're just like me."

Starfire gave him a puzzled look. "Please, elaborate on your thinking."

Beast Boy shrugged him shoulders but kept a serious face plastered on. "I mean, I think that they're good guys but just don't know when to stop. They're pranksters gone wild. They don't need to be beaten up; they just need someone to set boundaries for them." Wow, Raven would be proud of his little speech. He'd love to see her make fun of his intelligence level after _that_. Of course, teasing him was her specialty. Starfire pondered his words for a moment before agreeing.

"Perhaps you are right, friend Beast Boy…"

"Titans! Are you alright?"

Robin and Cyborg came running towards the two, afterwards came Raven who flew in a few meters behind them. Robin was the first to reach them, worry for Starfire clearly written on his face, even with his mask glued on. "Was anyone injured?"

"Yeah, any broken bones? How 'bout you, BB?" Cyborg echoed once he caught up with his leader. Starfire shook her head and Beast Boy wiggled his arms to show that nothing was broken, bent the wrong way, or sprained. Raven landed softly next to Cyborg. Although her hood was still hiding most of her face, Beast Boy could swear that she looked---scared? Angry? What was it that was flashing in her eyes for that one second before there was no sign of emotion at all?

"We should find those brothers," Raven said in a serious tone, glancing at Beast Boy.

"Can you find them, Cyborg?" Robin asked, turning to the cybernetic titan. "We have to hurry."

Cyborg raised his right arm and mechanisms whizzed and whirled before a screen popped up on his appendage. "I can try to find Lightning by tracing an enormous amount of electricity, but---" From the distance near the forest, a boom went off, followed by a blazing fire.

"Or we can just follow that obvious burst of light," Beast Boy shrugged.

"Titans, move!" Robin said, and the together the five titans fled to the scene of such havoc. Luckily, the forest wasn't too far, only three minutes away, so Beast Boy refrained from wasting any energy he could use in the fight by turning into an animal. The bigger, the more energy, but even the smallest animal would drain him before the battle.

"Did they do anything to you?" Raven asked in a hushed voice as she flew at low speed beside him. Beast Boy raised an eyebrow and Raven decided that she sounded too concerned. "Or Starfire?" she added to cover up her discomfort.

"No," he breathed as his small legs pounded against the pavement. The sidewalk was slowly melding with the grass, a dirt path now. They would reach Thunder and Lightning soon. The crackle of thunder was becoming louder, the flashes of lightning growing brighter. Beast Boy could smell the faint scent of burning leaves and wondered exactly what the two brothers were up to. "Why would you ask?" he inquired innocently. Raven let out a breath. She nearly wanted to say that she had been scared for him, Starfire too, for that matter. She nearly wanted to say that she had been worried that he had been injured, of worse yet. She nearly admitted that the stars wouldn't be that bright without his annoying jokes, squeaky voice and irritating pranks. Losing any of the titans would be horrible, but losing Beast Boy would make her days so…predictable, quiet---all the things she repeatedly wanted from her life that seemed too boring without Beast Boy to prevent her from reaching peace.

But Raven looked him in the eyes, causing him to flinch as he ran, and told him, "You and Starfire are my team members. If either of you two is hurt, it should be automatic that the others are alerted." Beast Boy's ears dropped a fraction of an inch but he kept on a neutral face. Was he upset that she didn't feel more concerned with him? He refused to meet her eyes, even as he continued talking to her. He's afraid of me, Raven recalled. There shouldn't be a surprise about that.

And yet why was she so…unhappy with the thought? It was her wish to have no one become close to her; they would all end up in pain. She was a monster, a freak. She was _creepy_. That was how it should be!

So why?

Why?

Why?

_WHY_?

Beast Boy coughed from beside her and she sniffed the air. There was a thick burning scent that made her eyes water and her throat close. How unbearable it must be for Beast Boy with such an enhanced sense of smell! As the titans entered the clearing of the forest, Starfire gasped from the head of the group.

What in Azar's name _was_ that thing?

What could only be described as a monster stood in the clearing. It had the body shape of a man, but the head of a demon. And it was engulfed in an endlessly burning fire. It unhinged its massive jaw and roared loudly, causing the ground to shake. The two brothers stood next to an old man, cowering in fear. The old man, however, looked satisfied, happy even. From under his straw hat, long white hair flowed over his shoulders and covered his eyes, but a smile was visible on his wrinkled face. He had used a summoning spell, Raven realized. He must have used an elemental summoning spell to create this monstrosity.

"Burn fire!" the old man screamed up at it, throwing his thin arms up heavenward, the large sleeves of his robe rolling up to his elbows. "Burn it all!"

"Didn't anyone tell you that if you play with fire, you're going to get burned?" Robin interrupted. The monster turned to them slowly, its small eyes menacing, and swiped at them with one flaming arm. Raven didn't see what the other titans did, but in that instant she was overcome with a pulsing fear that went through her entire body. She dodged the attack easily, but as the heat and flames from its arm blew past her she gasped. Why would anyone wish a monstrosity like this onto the world? She watched helplessly as it growled and walked towards the city, setting trees ablaze as it passed.

"Very good," The old man murmured.

"Brother, what have we done?" Thunder asked Lightning, distress clear on his face. He was radiating sorrow, torrents of it washing over Raven so that it shook her vision for a second.

Robin snapped back into action then. "Titans, go!" He cried, running after the flaming being. Raven and the rest of the team followed, sprinting along with him. Robin grunted and threw a cluster of smoke bombs at the monsters feet, giving the titans more time to think up a plan.

"Flames can't spread if there's nothing to burn," Raven muttered as she flew over the forest. "Azarath, Mentrion, _Zinthos!_" she screamed, encasing all of the trees in the monsters path in a dark energy. One by one, she ripped them out of the ground, yanking with her mental strength.

"Good idea, Raven!" Robin shouted to her. "Beast Boy! Starfire! Help her out!"

Beast Boy charged at the trunks as a bull, knocking down trees as he rammed into them. There was a dull throbbing in his skull, as well as a pain in his horns, but he ignored it and continued to take down the trees. He had to keep the town below safe. He was a superhero, that's what superheroes did.

Starfire soared up into the tree tops and blasted twenty away at one time. They were doing well, but the forest was already half in flames. Cyborg bellowed and activated his canon, punching the ground with all of his might. A sonic wave erupted, shaking the ground and attacking the monster, which backed away and raised its arms in defense. A tidal wave of dirt blew high into the sky, blotting away Raven's image of the monster.

It was silent, an eerie kind of quiet.

"Is he out?" Beast Boy wondered aloud, taking a step forward. As if answering his question, the beast rose from the cloud and roared defiantly, raising its arms to the sky. Beast Boy's mouth dropped and he twitched. Was this his luck or did it happen coincidentally?

"You _had_ to ask," Raven said from behind, eyes wide. She clutched the edge of her cape in her hand and blinked as her eyes watered. Beast Boy turned and gave her a disbelieving look, unsure if she honestly thought he had brought on the monsters revival or not. The monster ignored the titans' efforts and marched onwards towards the town. Robin ran off to the old man and began to fight hand-to-hand with him, leaving room for Beast Boy to doubt the mans true age. He definitely wasn't as old as he looked. "I'm ending this," Raven whispered under her breath, and launched herself at the monster.

"Rae!" Beast Boy screamed from the ground, reaching a hand out towards her, but she was already almost a mile up.

"---_Zinthos!_" He heard her hollered. From her hands came two twin columns of black energy, spinning wildly like two matching hurricanes. The two columns blasted the monster, the wind it created blowing out the fire. The monster stood, a charred corpse, its head bent backwards and its chest thrust forward. Then it ignited again and Beast Boy gasped. Would this stupid thing ever die!?

The monster curled in on itself before lunging outwards. From its very core came a blinding blast of heat, so powerful that the trees and ground around him were obliterated. Raven was thrown backwards, but through squinted eyes she saw Beast Boy huddle up into a ball and prepare for the blast. With the a small amount of her energy before she hit the ground from one mile in the air, she muttered her magic words and cast a protective force field around him. She couldn't---wouldn't---let him die here.

She fell to the ground and gasped as pain broke out in the small of her back. She must have landed on a rock. It wasn't that bad but _Ow_! She laid on her back for only a second, feeling the sharp edge of the rock dig into her back, until she felt the jolt of electricity run through her. Her first thought was that she had touched Beast Boy's bare skin again before she had realized that it had only been Lightning. This wasn't a pleasurable kind of shock; it was painful. Lightning's hands began to glow and he sneered, stalking closer. Raven closed her eyes and groaned, a bit of her energy leaking out and encasing Thunder and Beast Boy accidentally.

This just wasn't her day.

"Stand aside, green one!" Thunder commanded. As a tiger, Beast Boy snarled defensively. Did Thunder really think that he would let him hurt his friends? Hurt Cyborg, hurt Starfire?

_Hurt_ _Raven?_

Even thinking those words made him tremble with anger. No, he would not stand aside. He would protect Raven always, he swore by it. Thunder charged at him, and Beast Boy did the same. Before he could pounce on the blue teen and rip out his throat, the two were surrounded by a purple haze---unknown to either of them that it was a short side-affect to being introduced to a raw telekinetic energy source.

(_I do not wish to hurt you_.)

It was Thunder's voice, but his mouth did not move. I'm hearing his thoughts, Beast Boy realized.

(_But you wanna destroy homes and innocent lives?_) Beast Boy asked mentally, still in tiger form.

Thunder hesitated. (_No_,) he said sadly.

(_Then what are you fighting for?) _Beast Boy wondered.

(_My brother and I…_) Thunder started. (_The old man says we are unique, gifted, better._)

Beast Boy snorted. (_Gifts don't make you better---just different! It's how you use them that counts!_)As more of an incoherent thought than an actual sentence in his mind, Beast Boy used Raven as an example. She was different, she was creepy, but she tried to be a good person. She was an example, along with the rest of the titans that being cursed with such "gifts" didn't make you better, didn't make you destroy and kill. Being different made some people realize the hero in themselves.

Thunder nodded, at last understanding what Beast Boy had been trying to say.

(_This Raven girl----she is important to you?_)

Beast Boy flinched and felt the heat rise to his cheeks. Thank God no one could see anything behind his tangles of fur!

(_All of my teammates are_,) he said truthfully. Thunder shook his head.

(_Yes, but the way that you portray her as a hero, as an example for others to follow, is truly something. She must either be a very incredible being or someone of vast importance to you_.) Beast Boy did the closest thing a tiger could do to shrug. This wasn't exactly what he wanted to be talking about.

(_She is incredible, but everyone is in their own way. She's freaky, but she's different and that's okay. Look at us! We're a robot, an acrobat, an alien, a green kid, and two elements come alive! We all have the ability to destroy and hate, but we've decided to make something of ourselves_.)

The mist departed and Beast Boy found himself frozen in the pouncing position he was in moments before, jaws wide and hovering inches above Thunder's neck. Thunder had one fist ready to blast clear through Beast Boy. The two locked eyes and Beast Boy slowly went back into a more peaceful position and transformed back into a human. Thunder lowered his hands and stood with his back straight, as did Beast Boy.

"And you should, too."

Thunder bowed slightly and turned, running to his brother. "I shall make you proud," he called over his shoulder. Beast Boy smiled weakly and gave him a thumbs up before returning to his original goal: defeating Mr. Flame-y Monster Dude.

Beast Boy twisted around in time to see Raven lying on the floor, turning her head. Beast Boy sighed and jogged over to her. When he was by her side, he lowered himself onto his haunches and asked her, "Can you hear me, Rae?"

"Sadly," she moaned. "My back feels like I've been stabbed with a butcher knife and my entire body feels like it's on fire."

Beast Boy's face crumpled with concern without him even realizing it. Just the fact that she was in pain made him feel pain, as well. "Aw, crap…" he muttered. He removed one of his gloves and pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, which was covered with sweat. Before he could even so much as graze the skin, Raven's eyes flew open and she was sitting up, holding his hand away from her person. Her fingers dug into his arm and she shook feebly. "Are you…"

"I don't---like people, um, touching me," she said, biting her lip. _Did she really just stutter?_ He said with incredulously dousing his thoughts. "But," she cleared her throat, "thank you for your concern."

"N-No problem," Beast Boy replied as he slipped his glove back on. Shit, he was looking in her eyes again. He didn't want to look into them, their soulless depths, but at the same time he was dying to. It gave him such a thrill, such an odd feeling that tingled from the bottom of his feet to the tips of his pointed ears, and he realized he _wanted_ to. He _wanted_ to feel this strange sensation, _wanted_ to have his instincts scream at him. He wanted her to look at him. He decided then that he would do whatever it took to get her attention, positive or negative she just needed to be looking _right at him. _Was it hypnotism? Raven was a sorceress after all, it was possible that it was magic. But what would she gain from it exactly? What would she---such pretty eyes, so big, so violet, so…so…

Then she blinked and the brain softening experience ended, leaving him feeling like an idiot for thinking such stupid things. Raven got up without any help and Beast Boy thought he saw her back glisten with blood when the wind blew her cloak away, but a second later it was gone.

"Those house's go, the whole city could go!" Cyborg informed the three remaining titans, watching angrily as the monster walked down to the town. "We gotta stop the fire!"

"How?" Raven questioned, ever the pessimist. She looked behind her and inhaled sharply at the sight of trees, nothing but trees, setting the sky ablaze as the flames danced and the conflagration grew bigger.

"Any way we can." The remaining titans headed in the direction of the town and ahead of the monster---but it was gaining, and any second the entire town would catch fire. "Huuah!" Cyborg yelled as he punched off the top of a fire hydrant. Beast Boy, as an elephant, took a giant sip with his trunk and lifted it towards the monster and exhaled, showering it. Cyborg pressed his hands to the top so that the water would hit his palms and then spray in a different direction. Once the water hit the monster, it hissed angrily and backed up a few paces, away from the town. It was working.

Raven contributed, holding out her hands and using her powers to create a gust that would hopefully help put out the fire. Starfire floated beside the green elephant, unable to do anything. Beast Boy took another large amount of water and sprayed again, but the efforts were only keeping the monster away. Once the titans ran out of either ammunition or energy, the monster would trudge onward and destroy the town, the suburbs, and all of Jump City.

"This isn't working!" Raven cried over the noise. Cyborg shouted back, "Just keep at it, Raven!" It wasn't much, but it was all the titans could do to keep the monster at bay. After a few painfully long seconds, there was an illuminating light from the forest that shot into the sky at light speed. The light was sucked into the clouds, and soon a clap of thunder was heard, followed by flashes of lightning. Then a miraculous thing happened.

It started to rain.

Once the rain water landed on the monster shrieked and tried to cover itself, but it was too late. Smoke hissed as the monster finally fizzed out, becoming only a burning corpse one more. Then it crumbled into ashes and was washed away with the rain, into the sewers to never be seen again. All at once, the titans cheered, all but Raven who watched the rain patter onto the ground passively.

Beast Boy danced in the rain next to her like the moron that he was. He held his tongue out and let the rain slide down his throat, rejoicing at the natural miracle. He closed his eyes and let the water land on his face, soaking his hair and matting it to his head. His ears twitched happily and he held his arms up towards the clouds where he knew that the two brothers were watching him make a fool out of himself. He laughed and twirled like a like a little kid, making Raven's lips twitch as she held back a smile. He was acting like he was four, not fourteen, and it seemed strangely endearing to her. That last thought disturbed her---why would anything Beast Boy do seem charming to her?

_Soulma----_

No! No! _No!_ She screamed at herself. He _wasn't _her soulmate, he _wasn't _charming, and she was _never _going to even consider him anything less then a ridiculously immature kid!

"Don't you like the rain?" Beast Boy asked, interrupting Raven's mental berating of herself. "I mean, it's awesome, isn't it?"

Raven almost scoffed at his limited vocabulary; the only words he knew were dude, awesome, sweet, and maybe a few nouns. "I'm not that happy about getting wet," she told him simply. He smiled and morphed into a furry sheep dog, and before Raven could react, he was shaking himself so that Raven was completely drenched. She puffed out a breath and glared at him, hoping to scare him off, but he yapped unknowingly. Raven chose to glower at him until he changed back into a human, sitting on all fours.

"Still don't like rain?" he asked sweetly, retreating to a human stance. Raven blinked water out of her eyes; uck, the rain was sticking to her eyelashes!

"Oh, yes, now that you've thoroughly soaked me with water I feel much less hateful towards it," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"I thought so," Beast Boy told her sternly, but his wide smile ruined it. His tooth stuck out from the side of his mouth and Raven wasn't sure whether to kiss him or hit him. She settled for the latter option and smacked him lightly over the head. He rubbed the sore spot and shrugged sheepishly before walking over to Thunder and Lightning.

"We are sorry for all of the trouble we caused you," Thunder bowed. Then he frowned and elbowed his brother, who was pouting and standing with his arms crossed.

"Oof!" he said, before swallowing his pride and bowing. "I am…also sorry."

"You have taught us much, green one. Thank you," Thunder said, shaking Beast Boy's hand in a vise-like grip.

"Don't thank me," Beast Boy answered, pointing to Starfire, "thank the person who taught me."

Thunder and Lightning bowed in respect when the Tamaranian girl came over. "And thank you for helping to defeat the flame monster," she said, also bowing her head. "You were very helpful, my friends."

"Friends…?" Lightning asked, smothering his delight.

"Yeah, and I'd like to tell you guys to drop by any time," Cyborg said, beaming.

"Thank you for the invitation, but we should be going brother," Thunder said happily. If anyone else came by, busting with joy, Raven would have the flavor of happiness coming out of her ears.

"Green one praises you much," Thunder said suddenly to Raven, whom raised an eyebrow at Beast Boy. Cyborg and Starfire followed suite, and Beast Boy proceeded to turn red. "He has said many good things of all of you," Thunder admitted, taking the attention off of the sudden appreciation of Raven. "But you seem to be a very great hero; all of the titans seem to be. Look after your friends and you mate, green one. We bade you goodbye," He said. The titans and the two brothers waved valediction, shouting pleasantries and such until the two flew out of sight. Following their exit, the rain slowed to a slow drizzle, coating everything with a light mist.

"So where did that come from?" Cyborg asked him, and Beast Boy twiddled his thumbs and made an effort to act stupid.

"What do you mean, dude?" He tried, but his hit a high note in the middle of "mean" and Cyborg wasn't going to stop; he was relentless, much like a tiny boy with a magnifying glass torturing a colony of ants.

Cyborg lowered his voice like Thunder, saying, "'Look after your _mate.'_" The last word was emphasized with a tilt of the head and a large smile. Beast Boy scoffed.

"Look, man, there's been a misunderstanding. I said cool things about everyone," he lied through his teeth. Ugh, why couldn't he have used Cyborg as an example to Thunder? He wouldn't have mistaken him for his mate, would he?! But, Raven was the only good example, and as much of a bother it would be to explain to his friends, Beast Boy was glad to have used her. The teasing wouldn't last long, would it?

Before Cyborg could break into a fit of jokes, Robin came jogging up from the mist, huffing and puffing after his fight. "Look at this," he breathed, holding something up. Cyborg immediately sobered and took the object in his hands.

"What is it?" Beast Boy inquired, peeking over his friends shoulder. The rain had completely stopped and the sky began to slowly lose its murky look.

"It's a symbol. That old guy turned out to be the villain that organized that H.I.V.E. attack a while ago. He got away before I could get a chance to find out more about him, but he left this behind," Robin told him acutely.

"Slade…" Starfire gasped. Robin nodded, arms crossed.

"So Slade wants to destroy the city; question is, why?" Cyborg asked, lowering the symbol.

"I don't know," Robin scowled. "But I will find out, and he won't get away with it," He vowed, a determined expression on his face.

Raven watched the horizon slowly clear of clouds, a rainbow making its appearance after the storm. She never got why people thought they were so beautiful; it was just light being reflected off of water. "So…" She heard Beast Boy drawl nervously, and she watched him from the corner of her eyes. No one would look twice at her, so there was no risk of getting caught not-staring. "Am I still a…you know, clorbag?" he asked Starfire.

Starfire pretended to think. "Hmm…no. I believe you are more of a milnip wooserloop."

Beast Boy digested her words before doing the only thing Beast Boy normally would do.

He gloated.

"Sweet!" He started to do a celebratory dance by doing his own version of the cabbage garden. "Go Beast Boy! I'm a milnip! Who's your wooserloop?"

_What an idiot_, Raven thought, although watching him was pretty amusing. Not that she would ever tell him that---the last thing he needed was to think that he was funny.

"Huh---that is a good thing, right?" He asked. Starfire giggled and flew towards the tower. "Star?"

"So you took my advice for once?" Raven asked, seeming to materialize next to him. In reality, she took a few steps to her right, but Beast Boy hadn't even noticed her standing there. Which annoyed Raven because she was always painfully aware of his presence. His noisy, smelly, rambunctious presence.

"Wha---? Oh, well, you're always right, Rae," He smiled. Raven was so caught off guard that she didn't even discipline him about the nickname usage. There it was again, that genuine smile. Why didn't anyone else get to see it so that she would feel less…strange about it? A stray thought made her think that it was only meant for her eyes, but she quickly dismissed it. Beast Boy's grin grew larger when he heard her heart rate pick up slightly, but decided not to tease her. She didn't look like she was in the mood----not like she ever was, but that was beside the point. "What did Star call me, anyway?" he asked curiously.

"Why would you think I would know," Raven lied smoothly. She had, of course, read Starfire's mind for the fastest of seconds just to find out what the words meant. Beast Boy pouted, his lower lip jutting out and starting to quiver. Raven sighed. Curse him and his...not adorableness. His---ability to melt her heart. "It means 'wonderful green friend of mine.'"

Beast Boy whooped, throwing his hands in the air. "Go Beast Boy! I'm a---"

"If you start singing, so help me Goddess, I will toss you into the lake," Raven warned.

"You wouldn't do that to me, Rae."

Raven quirked an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Beast Boy grinned cheekily, leaning so that his face was inches from hers. Raven flinched and froze. This was a total invasion of personal space, a complete lack of respect for her private bubble of solitude. No one should come near her, and yet here Beast Boy was, breathing on top of her. Her heartbeat sped up and she stopped breathing, holding very still. Her face felt very hot all of a sudden, and she almost shuddered.

"You know I can hear your heart beat pick up, right?"

It only took one sentence for Beast Boy to find himself at the bottom of the lake, sand stuffed down his pants.

---

Raven wasn't being nice to Beast Boy. She totally, definitely, absolutely wasn't being nice to Beast Boy.

She was just…doing her job. As a superhero, she was supposed to dispense justice. And that was exactly what she was doing.

Exacting justice.

She hid in the shadows, watching the staircase with unblinking eyes. She had made sure that, unlike Beast Boy's former attempt at revenge, it would only be Cyborg that could be the receiver of this prank. The robotic teen's footsteps echoed loudly down the stairs, and Raven smirked to herself. As Cyborg stepped on the last stair he was yanked upward by some unseen force. He screamed in surprise, flailing his metallic limbs every which way. There was a loud _clunk!_ as his torso stuck to the magnet Raven had placed over him, it's setting on high. He would be fine, unharmed to say that least. The magnet would run out of battery power…

…eventually.

She allowed herself to chuckle at her handy-work and stepped away from her hiding spot, humming as she walked leisurely to her room. Cyborg was still shouting for someone to help him down. He would be yelling until his vocal receptor lost charge.

"And that," she muttered as she waltzed past him, "is for turning Beast Boy brown."


	5. Sum of His Parts

**Hello to all of my totally awesome readers! Please remember to review and if you can, I'd appreciate it if you could point out any or all mistakes I've made (I have a tendency to miss almost all of them…) Props to anyone who can guess where I came up with the names for the two mystery characters that appear later in the chapter! Next stop, "Nevermore Part 1!"**

**Enjoy!**

**---**

It was a ridiculously sunny day when Raven woke up that morning.

She had another strange dream, the umpteenth one this month. And again, it had been about her friends, more about her green friends than anyone else. This time Raven had dreamt she was sitting on the titan's couch, reading a book while she rested her head lazily on someone's shoulder. The person had an arm snaked around her waist, pulling her closer to their lanky form. She had sighed contently, that she remembered, and looked up from under her eyelashes to gaze at the persons face. Emerald eyes stared back down at her, and the tooth that stuck out from the corner of his mouth---the left corner, Raven would always know---jutted out playfully as he smiled. Raven's face flooded with color and she smiled back. She would have yanked her hood up but it seemed to be pasted to her back.

He had opened his mouth to say something when she had woken up.

Instead of waking up screaming, as she had expected that she would wake from a dream such as that, she remained still. Her bare arm was thrown over her eyes, and yet the bright light of the morning still managed to burn through her closed lids. Birds chirped outside of her window, a harmony that normally would have brought on a smile to any one's face. Her velvet curtains, which she threw closed regularly, were left open to allow sunlight to filter through, dust swirling in the rays it cast through the glass. The disfigured raven sculptures and dark paintings hanging from the walls seemed strangely out of place in the beautifully lit up room. The dark blue sheets around Raven were knotted and crumpled from her restlessly moving throughout the night.

Sighing, she removed her arm from her face and almost cried out in anguish when the light stung her pupils.

How she yearned for the darkness!

She slowly cracked open one sleep-encrusted eye, then the other, squinting to see. She rolled out of her bed, groaning at the effort so early in the morning. The chirping outside her window reminded her of those stupid birds and she ground her teeth, trying to ignore the constant noise.

Don't get mad, Raven, mad is not good.

Emotion is bad.

Feel no emotion, feel no anger.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

She stopped grinding her teeth and turned to look at herself in the mirror that hung from the wall opposite her circular bed. Her purple hair was sticking out in every which direction, reminding her of a porcupine. The Chakra placed directly in the center of her forehead contrasted starkly with her pale, chalky skin. Her half-lidded eyes stared blankly back at her emotion, and while they betrayed no emotion in their emptiness, they sent out a warning that she was dangerous, that she was creepy. Her eyes were like a "Beware of Dog" sign, Raven thought.

Her dark nightgown hung loosely off of her body, ending near her mid-thighs with a collection of white ruffles---a gift from Starfire from some mindless holiday. Perhaps one from Tamaranian origin. Long, pale legs stuck out from the bottom of the nightgown, knees locked in a military fashion as she studied her reflection. She didn't think she was ugly, nor did she think she was pretty. Raven was just---regular, that would be a good word if she didn't fight super villains and live in a giant T-shaped tower with four other superheroes.

Se truly wished she was normal, to be able to feel emotions, to find out what it felt like to not know that she would cause the destruction of Earth.

Raven turned from her painfully average reflection----aside from the purple hair that gave her an electrified look and blood-red Chakra---and instead looked out from her window. She hissed at the bright sun that glowed down at her mockingly, its power magnified by the lake below, burning Raven's corneas to a crisp.

It was a beautifully sunny day.

And Raven hated it.

---

Beast Boy's alarm clock had been buzzing irritatingly for the past half an hour. After multiple attempts to hit the 'snooze' button without opening his eyes, each attempt progressively turning into him trying to punch the batteries out of the damned thing, Beast Boy gave up and groaned. He got up from the bed and scowled, starting off a bad day for certain. His curtains were thrown closed, bathing the room in an eerie darkness that only Raven would enjoy.

All around him, his room was a whirlwind of....junk. Clothing was tossed to the side carelessly, half-eaten candy bars hidden under the bed, a few soda cans crushed in the corner, and from the corner of his eyes, Beast Boy swore he saw something move.

"Happy?" he asked the alarm clock, which beeped only joyfully as a response. Beast Boy frowned and knocked it off of his nightstand in a fit of anger at the device. The alarm clock bleeped one final time before it hit his floor with a crash, the screen cracking and bits of the machine sliding everywhere. Just before the battery failed, the red numbers flashed seven in the morning.

_Seven? Aw, man! But it's so early!_

Beast Boy sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

His green hair.

He hated being green. He hated being any other color that wasn't flesh colored. The tips of his hand---his disgustingly green hand---brushed past his ear, which was pointed sharply and twitched at the feeling of his bare hand. What kind of freak has pointy ears? They made him look like some dorky elf!

His hand found its way down to his mouth, poking his single fang. He hated that stupid thing. No matter what he did, how hard he tried, it stuck out of the corner of his mouth, teasing him. It stuck out to much when he frowned, which is why he tried not to frown so much in front of the others---then again, it stuck out when he smiled, too, and he did that frequently.

Along with the not-so-normal-hey-look-I'm-green problems with his appearance, Beast Boy also found problems with his body that other teenagers found as well. He was short, for one thing. At five feet nothing, he was still three inches smaller than Raven. And Cyborg made him feel so puny it was almost scary. The fact that he was too scrawny also bothered Beast Boy. His limbs were too skinny, and yet his feet and hands were over sized, like a puppy that had yet to grow into its body. He flexed his hand, as if testing it out, making sure that just because it was too big for him that it would still function properly. His hand felt weirdly naked without his ever-present glove concealing it.

Last, but not least, there was his voice. His squeaky, girly, high-pitched, crackly voice. His voice that was so prepubescent that if it got any higher, only dolphins would be able to hear it. It was hard to sound threatening when, as you start dishing out justice to some dudes robbing a bank on your very first day on a superhero team, your voice cracks in just the wrong ways. It's even worse when the robber-dude find your tone _so _amusing that they drop the bags of money and start imitating you, adding feminine gestures for the full affect. And, worse even then, when your mom gets mad and beats up the bad guys, yelling, "Don't make fun of my Garfield!" while she punches them from several feet away. That day on the Doom Patrol had been severe torture to him.

It sucked to go through puberty with millions of other animal species screwing up your DNA.

Beast Boy blew air out of his mouth, got up from his unmade bed, took one step forward, and tripped over something furry and hopefully not alive. "Hgh!" He croaked as he tumbled onto the floor, activating his door. It swished open and he somersaulted into the hallway, a sock hanging off of his ear. The world spun for a second before his vision cleared and he looked around to see if anyone had spotted him...

...and found he was eye-to-knee with Raven, who happened to be passing by at that exact time.

"I have to see that this early in the morning?" Raven whined apathetically, her sarcasm cutting into him, from the middle of the hall. Beast Boy swiped the sock off of his ear and opened his mouth to say something sarcastic back at her.

That's when he noticed what she as wearing.

A black, lacy nightgown that hung off her perfectly sculpted body in a way that seemed unreal. She was carrying a towel, probably off to shower, and a fresh bar of soap with one hand. Her skin seemed paler than normal, almost translucent, against the brightness of that diamond-thingie in he center of her forehead. Her hair went up in all different directions, defying gravity, and yet she still seemed breathtakingly beautiful. In those few seconds that she stood in the hall, her apathetic stare boring right through him, her magnificent eyes stopping his breathing and causing his heart to stutter, Beast Boy thought that she looked incredibly pretty. Her petite upper lip was curled with something that looked like disgust and her face took on a light-pink huge.

That was also when he realized he was wearing nothing but a pair of heart boxer-shorts.

His mouth hung open as his face colored. Instead of something funny to say as a retort, all that came out was a lowly, "Uhh..."

"And I thought the sun was blinding---I nearly lost my ability to see a few seconds ago!" Raven muttered, stalking off as she left Beast Boy alone, naked and humiliated. Beast Boy stared after her, watching her nightgown trail behind her, watching the slight sway of her hips as she walked---

"Any reason why you're sitting in the hall in your underwear?" Cyborg asked, bemused.

Oh yeah, his life totally sucked.

---

Raven sipped her tea slowly, swishing the steaming liquid in her mouth until it had cooled, and then swallowing it gratefully. She repeated the process for drinking nearly boiling hot tea for a few minutes until the task started to get annoying. She glanced at the lukewarm, half-empty cup of tea and her stomach growled in protest. The taste of jasmine was disgusting to the point where even she---Raven, the Tea Drinker---hated it. She grimaced at it and dumped the rest of the mixture down the kitchen sink. She placed the cup on the washboard to clean out later and yawned, stretching her arms towards the ceiling and grunting when her spine pleasingly popped into place.

She heard footsteps come from the hall and threw up her hood, making her face as unreadable as possible. She reached out with her mind to sense who it was, to ready herself for the kind of disturbance in her quiet. Would it be Starfire, with her annoying perkiness that she would need to prepare herself to block out? Or Cyborg, whose loud hoots and disgusting eating habits forced Raven to pretend she was somewhere else? Or perhaps---

_Beast Boy_.

Who else would it be to come and shatter her perfect morning? At least with the other titans it was easy to just slip away into solitude. Beast Boy made it impossible for her to become secluded; he was always trying to include her and Raven _hated_ it! She hated the fact that he was always talking to her. She hated the fact that he was always bothering her. She hated how he was always _there_.

She hated her stupid "soulmate"!!

Maybe it was true; perhaps she really did have an ancient psychic connection with her pointy-eared not-friend Beast Boy. But she didn't have to like him, she didn't have to like the situation it put her in, and she didn't have to even think about it. It was a fact as mindless as the color of the sky---unimportant, something you disregard.

And she didn't have to tell anyone of this.

Ever.

Beast Boy entered the room, mumbling something to himself about the best tactic he could use to prank Cyborg, without noticing Raven. He seemed so deep in thought---yes, _thought_. Raven felt that the mere idea of Beast Boy thinking was frightening! ---that he missed the step that separated the kitchen from the main room and he tripped over his own two feet.

"Oh!" he cried in a way that made him sound like a character in a low-budget animated television show on a cartoon network, and he flailed his arms uselessly, wind milling them. He fell on his face, rump in the air, and Raven could only shake her head. He truly was one of the stupidest people she'd ever met in her entire life. He looked up with his face smashed to the floor, mortified, and met Ravens eyes. Instantly, he blushed, turning a magnificent shade of red. His entire body stiffened and his fingers twitched.

Raven, too, was embarrassed, but had better control over her emotions. At least, she thought she did, unbeknownst to her that somewhere in the city a car was smashed to pieces by some black energy source.

The last time they had seen each other had been when Beast Boy was technically naked, sitting in the hall tired and disoriented. Just thinking of it now, Raven couldn't help but imagine him in his underwear again. She had never known what he looked like without a shirt on---and even though se did not like him. _**DID NOT LIKE HIM**_---she had to admit that he was…well-muscled. She had expected him to have bony arms and no build at all, but that had changed her mind entirely. He had extremely muscular arms from all of the pull-ups Robin would force the team to do, and he had at least a three-pack. And those heart boxers did look…funny!

Not cute!

_Funny_!

This caused her to accidentally destroy another car. Raven knew that he hadn't just decided to sit out in the hall, naked, and suspected that his natural clumsiness had been his downfall. But she kept her thoughts silent, instead choosing to keep her stare icy and her posture strict. Beast Boy was up on his feet in a matter of seconds, the blood starting to fade from his face. He looked away from her then, his eyes flickering everywhere else in the room.

_He's scared of me. _Raven was positive of that. What other reason would there be for not wanting to look at her? He was scared, scared out of his mind, probably. His instincts screamed it at him every time she was near him, and he had probably seen enough of her to want to stay away for a life time.

She's a monster!

A freak!

She's creepy!

Stay away, danger, do not cross, avoid at all costs, hazardous, caution!

And yet how did he always end up talking to her so much? How did he always find a way to get under her skin and irritate her like no one else could? _Ugh_!

"Hi," he squeaked, scratching his cheek lazily.

No eye contact yet.

"Hi," she replied frostily.

Beast Boy twitched and looked shyly up at her again, meeting her cold, unblinking stare with twinkling emerald orbs. "Um, bye then." And before Raven could even reply, he had slipped away in the blink of an eye. Raven sighed.

She hated sunny days.

---

_"We should go to the park!" _

As Raven hid in the shade of a tree, she decided that she hated Robin for ever suggesting it. She should have never come. She never would have either, if it hadn't been for _him_. She glared at the green menace, who was presently laughing and swinging from a tree.

How immature, Raven scoffed.

_"Please come, Raven! It won't be any fun without you!" _Raven honestly didn't know how having her around would make anything more fun. In fact, she suspected she would make a situation less fun. Why would he want her around---why would anyone? But he had begged and pleaded and whined until she thought her head was going to burst. She told herself that his stupid, creaky voice was what was getting on her nerves, but a small part of her mind told her that she really did want to come to the park.

She had a small part of her mind that wanted to crawl out of her shell, to open up to her friends, to get them to see that she wasn't as creepy and scary as they all thought she was. But that small part of her mind was easy to ignore, and she had gone the whole day trying to quiet the voice that told her that Beast Boy wasn't all that bad.

That he was someone that would be easy to love.

Now she sat cross-legged under the tree with her hood up, without even a book to amuse her. Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin were seated at a picnic table. Cyborg, the glutton that he was, was stuffing his face (_literally_!) into a rack of ribs she suspected came from some kind of dinosaur. Starfire was drinking from a large tub of mustard, something that confused Raven to no end, and Robin was calmly explaining to her that humans didn't consider it normal to stick a straw in a bottle of mustard and drink it.

Typical lover boy, Raven thought with a smirk.

She had tried to meditate for the past ten minutes, but it was impossible to do so with all of the screaming children running around and tossing Frisbees and the like. One girl had almost hit her in the head; she had a pink sundress on and two short pig-tails protruding from the back of her head. The girl was so scared of her that Raven had to throw the Frisbee to the other children because pig-tails didn't want to go and get it.

"Why didn't you get it?" one of the boys had yelled at the pig-tailed girl.

"But she's so...creepy," pig-tails had whispered. Raven wondered why that hurt her so much to hear.

Beast Boy had transformed into a lemur, crawling up the trunk of a tree. He hung from his striped tail for a moment before he morphed back into a gawky kid again. "Sweet!" he declared, upside down. He reached (up? down? Raven wasn't sure,) for the good on the grill Cyborg had lugged to the park and grinned. His legs were crossed over the branch to keep him from falling. "My tofu dogs are cooked to perfection!"

Raven inwardly groaned when she felt his gaze land on her. His eyes made her skin shiver, but she ignored it and stared straight ahead calmly, hands on her knees. "Yo, Raven! Try one. They're loaded with soy-beanie goodness," he taunted, holding out a tofu dog with one hand and shaking it, as if he was tempting her. Raven glanced at him sideways with a look that she hoped would make him fall from the tree and onto his head.

No such luck; he stayed perfectly balanced, the tofu dog held out as he watched her expression expectantly. Did he expect her to eat that monstrosity?

"I respect, that you don't eat meat," Raven explained slowly, narrowing her eyes. "Please respect that I don't eat fake meat." Beast Boy shrugged and smiled widely. Then he stuffed both tofu dogs into his mouth and chewed savagely. His cheeks bulged and Raven thought that he looked----not adorable, that wasn't the right word. Nothing Beast Boy did was ever _adorable-_--disgusting. Yes, disgusting was the right word.

Cyborg ran by with a football in his hand and shouted to the sky, "Alright, y'all! Who wants to play some foo'ball?"

Three titans ran after him, dropping what they were doing now that the promise of sports had been dangled in front of them---Raven was not among them. Robin had come because he would never back down from a challenge, Beast Boy because he loved playing around, and Starfire because, although she had no idea how to play, Robin would be there. They all looked at Raven hopefully, and she stared back.

If she said no, she knew Beast Boy would just start begging, and she didn't want to have everyone around see her give into him so easily. So instead she lied, saying, "I'll be referee." Raven sighed and tried for the last time to meditate. She inhaled, exhaled, and started to chant when a small voice interrupted her.

"What'cha doin'?"

"Gah!" Raven's eyes flew open and fell onto her bottom as she stopped levitating. This kid was lucky she wasn't startled to badly; someone could have been hurt, maybe even killed. Raven put on her scariest expression and turned to the brat. It was a boy, with curly blonde hair stuffed underneath a knitted hat and bright blue eyes with the largest freckles Raven had ever seen. He was skinny to the point where his clothing looked like it was swimming on him beneath the green collared shirt he was wearing. Despite her look that would inflict terror on most grown men, the boy ignored it and took a seat next to her. Why did that remind her of someone? Someone with just the right amount of stupid to ignore all of her warning signs?

"You're Raven from the Teen Titans!" He stated as if he had just found the cure for the common cold. Raven pretended as if she didn't hear him and stared intensely at the football game being played. Beast Boy jumped into the air and caught the football, curling up into a ball protectively around it.

"How come you're not playing with the rest of them?" the boy asked. Raven sighed; apparently ignoring him wouldn't work.

"Because I don't do sports," she answered curtly. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Gary, but you can call me Gar," the boy said. Raven nodded.

"Well, Gar, leave me alone. I'm trying to meditate." But that wouldn't satisfy the boy.

"Do you really have all those powers the TV says you do? Can you, like, fly and stuff?"

"Yes," Raven sighed. Although television tended to over-exaggerate things, Raven found that reporters could get scarily accurate.

"So Starfire's really from another planet?"

"Yes." Well, duh---she was constantly reminding people that she was not of earthly heritage by her strange behavior.

"Do you know what Robin looks like without his mask on?"

"Yes." It had been a dirty task, which had taken all of the titans' strength and cunning to complete, but they had pinned him down and scraped the mask off. Starfire had been delighted to find out that he had blue eyes. Of course, the titans had been doing laps for weeks afterwards as a punishment.

Raven secretly thought it was worth it.

Gar paused and Raven falsely allowed herself to believe he had run out of questions. She unwillingly began to daydream, discreetly watching Beast Boy (and the others! she screeched to herself, not just him!) tackle each other for the oddly shaped athletic device. He shook his head and sweat came flying off into the air. His uniform was getting tighter and he tugged his collar---

"Is Beast Boy your boyfriend?"

"Y---what?" Raven had been automatically answering him just to shut him up, not even thinking her answers through. She was just one syllable away from ruining her reputation and publicly humiliating herself.

"I won't tell," Gar promised, hand on his heart.

Raven scoffed. "Of course not! What kind of question? ---I would never---Beast Boy is the least attractive---an immature, stupid little---me and Beast Boy? That's just---just so _dumb_," she stumbled through her sentence, exasperated. Did he really just ask her if she was dating Beast Boy?

_Dating?_

_Beast Boy_?

Those words just didn't belong together in a sentence!

"But," Gar countered, "you're staring at him." He crinkled his nose. "You have that same look my big sister has when she looks at her boyfriend." Raven raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Your eyes get all soft and you get a lovey-dovey expression on your face. And you relax your sitting position."

Raven was so glad for her hood casting a shadow across her face. Did she really look like that when she looked at Beast Boy? Oh, Goddess, that was horrible!

"What ten year old boy is interested in the relationship status between two superheroes?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Twelve," Gar corrected promptly, "I'm twelve years old. You're only four years older than me."

"Thanks for the math lesson," Raven replied dryly, surprised at how mean she was getting with a kid. One question had sparked her defensive mode, sending her back into her shell and lashing out at others.

And a question about _Beast Boy_, no less.

"My friend Ray---well, her name's really Rachel, but I call her Ray even though she doesn't like it when I do---says you guys'd be a good couple," Gar went on obliviously.

She couldn't possibly be having this conversation. She couldn't possibly be talking with a blonde boy about her relationship with Beast Boy and what Ray thought about them. She was going to wake up in her room and laugh about this ridiculous dream in a few seconds.

One...

Two...

Why wasn't she waking up?!

"Your friend Rachel obviously doesn't realize who she's talking about. In case you haven't noticed, Beast Boy is my exact opposite," Raven said, attempting to swallow the venom in her voice.

"But in all the pictures in the paper, you're always next to him. And---and---when the TV reporters get you guys on tape you only talk to him," Gar retorted.

"Look, I---"

"---Five Gotham City!" Beast Boy cried before morphing into a triceratops and charging at Robin. Robin clutched the football as if it were a valuable item and looked around, wheels spinning in his head as he quickly thought out a plan. Using his natural brilliance, he vaulted over Beast Boy. He stood on the surprised dinosaurs head and threw the football with all of his might. The football spiraled, heading straight towards Cyborg, who held his arms out eagerly.

"I got it!" he cried. "I got it! I---" Cyborg's robotic body parts went from blue to black and he froze in mid-run, his arms in catching position, one knee bent while the other leg was in the air. The football conked him in the head before bouncing off of him and rolling away on the grass. In the stance he was in, one leg wasn't able to support all of his weight, so he toppled over, his expression never changing.

"Cyborg?" Robin called. "Cyborg!"

"Shit," Raven muttered under her breath, not caring that she had just cursed in front of a kid.

"What happened to Cyborg?" he asked, blue eyes wide.

"Just, go play in traffic, alright?" Raven said in an annoyed voice, helping herself up. The titans crowded around Cyborg, who was still lying on the floor, with mouths agape. Cyborg's only real eye fluttered closed and his other eye blinked before shutting down completely. A power-draining noise went off before the park was silent except for the loud kids and twitter of nervous moms watching their children. A tidal wave of concern coming from all the titans made her clench her fists in agony.

"Dude…" Beast Boy said softly, watching for any signs of life coming from Cyborg. None seemed to be found until, after almost five minutes of crouching over him and watching like idiots, Cyborg's left eye started to flicker back to life.

"Cyborg, Cyborg!" Starfire called to him when she noticed.

"What's wrong with him?" Raven asked no one, raising an eyebrow. Beast Boy leaned in closer to Cyborg with a finger on his chin.

"Is he gunna be okay?"

Robin shushed them. "I think he's coming to," he informed them. Just as he said that, Cyborg's human eye cracked open and the blue-ish light came back to his robotic parts.

"Yeah." Starfire and Robin helped him up. He grunted. "Thanks."

"What happened?" Raven asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Somethin' must'a gone wrong with my systems," Cyborg said wearily. He sounded completely drained of energy to Raven. He lifted his right arm and pressed a button, a screen appearing on it. A bar came up, filled only a sixteenth of the way by a blinking red bar. A timer below that read: "POWER REMAINING 00: 29: 46".

Cyborg groaned. "Aw man, my power cell's dying."

This alarmed Starfire. "Dying?" She cried, eyes fearful for her friend.

"It's only a battery," Cyborg reassured her. "I'm fine. Happens every couple of years." He shrugged. "Just a natural part of bein' unnatural."

"So---what'a we do?" Robin questioned him. Cyborg handed him the football, and Robin accepted it with both hands.

"You keep playin'; I go home and change batteries." Cyborg turned and started walking away towards the tower.

"You sure you don't want help?" Beast Boy offered. Was it just him or was Cy sounding a little down?

"Just 'cause I can't have fun doesn't mean y'all can't," Cyborg replied glumly without turning around. The titans all watched him walk until they could no longer see his back.

"Well, since Cyborg's out, you wanna play, Rae?" Beast Boy asked.

"Ven," Raven said offhandedly. Beast boy gave her a puzzled look and she sighed. "My name is Raven."

"Well, do you?" he asked again. Raven shook her head.

"C'mon, Raven, it's easy," Robin coaxed.

"I don't know how to play football," she explained lamely. Beast Boy stared at her, dumbfounded as if it had never occurred to him that some people simply didn't know how to play the game of football. What a Neanderthal.

"Neither did I, friend Raven," Starfire smiled, her happiness burning away the inside of Raven's stomach, as always. "But once it was explained to me, the ball of foot was most fun! Please, play!" she begged.

Raven opened her mouth to say no, she would never play such a stupid, sweaty game, but for some reason beyond her imagination, the word that came out was "fine."

The teams were set again, Robin and Raven versus Starfire and Beast Boy. "Uh…twelve, blue, eighty-nine…" Raven said monotonously, apparently confused.

"Say, hike!" Robin whispered to her. Raven obeyed and Robin tossed her the ball from under his legs. Raven fumbled to catch it, and once she did, Robin was already near the touchdown line. "Raven!" He screamed, waving his arms. "I'm open, I'm open!" Raven furrowed her eyebrows and attempted a position similar to the one she had seen the boys use when throwing the football. She held one hand out in front of her while she bent the other one back, spreading her legs apart. She believed the she would look very professional to anyone glancing at her from afar. Then she unhinged her elbow and threw the football to the other end of the field

---all three feet.

As the ball bounced contemptuously by her feet, Raven sighed. She knew something like this was going to happen. Why had she even bothered trying to play?

"Um…Raven? I think you're supposed to throw it to me, not the ground," Robin noted. Raven glared at him and crossed her arms.

"I am aware."

Starfire picked the ball up and handed it to her. "Try once more, friend Raven, and perhaps you will do better this time."

Several throws later, Raven was still in the same predicament. Beast Boy, fed up with the fact that the ball hadn't even come into play, sighed and trotted over, scooping the ball up in his hands. "Here," he told Raven, who took the ball and went to throw it again. What she hadn't expected was Beast Boy to step behind her and fix her position.

He stood behind her, his body almost touching hers as he held her waist with one hand. Every muscle in her body froze instantly and she was painfully aware that their legs were _thisclose_ to touching, that his face next to hers, that he was so close to her that she could hear him breathing, that her heart was thudding in her throat.

It was all very nerve-wrecking.

Raven never knew how large his hands were until he had placed his other gloved one over hers, fixing her hand so that it was now in the right position to cradle the ball with. His hand and hers, she thought, were only separated by a thin piece of cloth and Velcro. Without that glove, her hand would feel as if she had jammed it in an electrical socket. Just the thought of that amazingly strange feeling made her shiver.

Because of all her excessive throwing, Raven's hood had been blown off, allowing her to feel the slight breeze in the air against her damp forehead. Oh, Goddess, he was so close to her that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck…Her body temperature started to rise and she couldn't do a thing to hide her face; she was stuck in a humiliating tight spot. Self-consciously, she began to wonder if Robin could see how agitated she was, if Starfire was going to misjudge the situation, if Beast Boy was going to tease her over a misunderstanding. The more thoughts that flew through her mind, the more flustered she became.

"What are you _doing_?" she hissed through clenched teeth. Beast Boy seemed not to notice how rapid her heart was beating, or was---for once in his life---being polite and just ignoring it. Even if he was, it didn't ease her nerves to know that he was aware of how nervous she was getting. How would he interpret that as? Why did she care, anyway?

"You're not doing this right, and you're not going to learn unless I show you," he explained as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Raven scowled angrily. "Look, you're throwing it wrong. What you're doing is using your entire arm to throw, and you're feet are to far apart." Beast Boy nudged her foot and it came closer to the other one.

"There. Now, all you have to do is flick your wrist to throw it," he said, and he made her flick her wrist. The football flew from her fingertips, spiraling through the air and landing almost several yards away. Robin jogged to go fetch it and Starfire applauded.

"Like that," he said gently. Raven's eyes flickered around to see if anyone was watching, and sure enough, sitting under the tree where she had left him was the blonde boy, smirking at her triumphantly.

Dear Azar, what was going through that brats mind right now?

Out of sheer panic, Raven pushed Beast Boy away from her and threw her hood up so that no one could see her face again. Se had been reminded of her dream now, not being able to hide behind her hood, but it wasn't a smile she was trying to conceal. And it wasn't a dream, she knew now---it was a nightmare! She felt so vulnerable with her hood down. So---so something, she didn't know what but she knew she didn't want anyone to see her like that again. Beast Boy hopped away on one foot to keep his balance and frowned at her.

"Sorry," Raven mumbled, looking down. "And thank you. It's just…I don't like people being that close to me." The blonde kid started to make kissie-faces behind Beast Boy's back and Raven glowered at him. Beast Boy quirked an eyebrow, followed her gaze, and turned to look at the blonde boy as well.

"Oh…uh, no problem," he said distractedly. "Do you, um, know that kid?" Beast Boy asked, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the blonde boy.

At least he had stopped with the faces, Raven sulked.

"Not really," Raven remarked. "He says his name is Gar."

"Huh…" Beast Boy said with a small smile playing on his lips. Raven questioned him and he brushed her off. "Nothing---it's just he looks sorta' like me when I was a kid," he told her.

Raven blinked and tried to imagine Beast Boy not green and shorter. It just wasn't possible. His ever-constant fang was too hard to erase from his face and his eyes just seemed better green. And his ears were just an obvious trait of his. Raven voiced her thoughts and Beast Boy frowned, tugging on one of his pointed ears. "I know. Ever since I was seven I've been green," he informed her sadly. Well, that was interesting. Raven had always though he had just hatched like that, smelly, green, and armed with annoying jokes that weren't funny. "It's a lame color, right?" he asked himself.

"Actually, green is my second favorite color," Raven quipped before covering her mouth with both hands. Beast Boy released his ear and looked at her strangely, eyebrow raised. Where did _that_ come from? But, it was true. She didn't mind him being oddly colored. It was refreshing to see a superhero that was beyond the norm for a bunch of freaks that could fly and melt things with their minds. Dare she say, she liked him green.

Not like she'd tell him that though.

"I mean," Raven mumbled, embarrassed, "it's an okay color."

Beast Boy smiled and was about to say something when Robin shouted from behind---"Head's up!"---and Beast Boy was hit in the head with the football. He made a funny sound before moaning and falling on the floor. How many people were going to get hit in the head with that murder weapon today, Beast Boy wondered.

"Are you okay?" Raven asked, crouching down.

"Yeah…"Beast Boy mumbled. "But why are there three Ravens'?" He lolled his head for emphasis and draped and arm over his forehead dramatically. Raven rolled her eyes. If he was able to annoy her, he should be fine.

"Sorry about that, Beast Boy," Robin grinned shamefacedly, helping that changeling back to his feet. The smile vanished when his communicator went off, beeping insanely. He flipped it open and his I'm-the-serious-leader face deployed. "Someone's robbed a jewelry store. Let's move, titans!" Beast Boy dropped the football and it bounced awkwardly before rolling back to the picnic table. He jumped into the air and transformed into a bird, following his fellow team members, who had already flown a few meters ahead.

Beast Boy always loved how it felt to transform his shape. All he had to do was picture any kind of animal and will his body to look like it. There would come that small trembling feeling and his body would shiver. It was so quick though, because he had sharpened his ability to transform into a fraction of a second, but he was always able to feel his body change. The animals that could fly were his absolute favorite to change into. Humans were so limited---to the ground, to their insensitive senses, _everything_. The feeling of flight was incredible, even if he couldn't feel the wind going through his hair (blowing through his feathers was just as cool.) After years of being able to fly, Beast Boy still got a thrill out of soaring.

As the titans neared the jewelry store, Beast Boy glided down and landed clumsily on his feet. He could be so graceful as any kind of animal, but in this stupid human body it was impossible to stay balanced. To cover his blunder, he tried to mask tripping by breaking out into a slow jog that lasted for about five seconds. He looked around to see if anyone would call him on that, and was embarrassed to see that Raven was shaking her head at him. Argh, why was she the only one who saw him act like an idiot?

Robin went to talk to the police while the titans entered the jewelry store and looked around. Nothing appeared to be broken into or out of, the glass cases were in perfect condition, the cash register hadn't been touched----all that was missing was the…

Something wet landed on the tip of Beast Boy's nose. He looked up and screamed. Suspended above him was the store keep, tied in a straightjacket of tape. His mouth had been covered, muffling his cries for help. He looked to be oriental, with balding black hair, and he reeked of fear. Starfire cut him down and ripped the tape off of his mouth. The store keep yowled in pain and his hands shot up to rub his sore upper lip.

"Oh, thank goodness you've found me!" he cried, throwing himself at Beast Boy's feet. "I felt so light-headed I thought my skull would explode!" Beast Boy made a strange face and the man cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm sorry about that, I was just getting so petrified…" he explained, picking himself up in a more dignified position.

"Uh, no problem, dude. What happened here, anyways?" The shop keep looked up at him with wide, wet eyes.

"There was a man here that stole all of my prized diamond necklaces. He was like a---a---magician of some sort; said his name was Mumbo. I'm here, minding my shop, when he just…appears in here from a cloud of smoke. I don't know how he did it but the next thing I knew I was hanging upside down and he was ransacking the place. He left the same way he came, and I've been up there ever since," he said, pointing to the ceiling.

"A magician?" Raven muttered. Then, in a louder voice: "Did he say any spells, any strange words?"

The shop keep shook his head. "No, but he did have a wand."

_A wand? _Raven thought. _How ridiculous!_ She had never heard of any kind of magic that was preformed with a wand that wasn't a fake. This man obviously couldn't be using actual magic. He must be an illusionist of some sort, there had to be some kind of trick.

Before the titans could question the man further, Robin came running in. "The police just told me that they spotted a man with blue skin head off towards the Junkyard. We have to get him there!" Again, the titans were off, this time to the Junkyard. Beast Boy could smell it before he could actually see it, and his nose wrinkled. He loved having hyper-sensitive senses; he just hated the smells!

As they entered the Junkyard, Beast Boy could make out the outline of a guy in a magicians outfit with a large blue nose. He had a mask that reminded him of Robin's cover most of his face and a cheesy two-piece mustache. He had on a Dracula-style cape and a dickey with a black bow-tie so tight Beast Boy didn't have to wonder why he was blue: he probably couldn't breathe with that thing suffocating him! The wind changed and he heard him mutter something about a diamond he was examining.

"Show's over, Mumbo!" Robin called, and Mumbo jerked forward and gasped. "Now hand over the jewels before the critics decide to trash your performance!" Mumbo turned to them and smiled, hands on his hips.

"Now, Robin, I'm sure there's a peaceful solution here." He closed his gloved fists and when he opened them there were two bombs, the wicker burning quickly. He twisted and threw them at the titans with all of his might. "But this isn't it!"

Beast Boy jumped from the ledge he had been crouched on and landed down near Mumbo, who fled to hide behind a pile of garbage. From there he laughed manically and tossed another bomb at Robin, who leaped from atop a pillar of garbage and landed with a grunt. Raven and Starfire took shelter behind a collection of metal scraps and car parts, avoiding being hit with the palm-fulls of cherry bombs.

Raven shut her eyes as they struck the metal scraps, the sound almost deafening. Starfire boldly stuck one arm out and shot a star bolt at him, which he dodged easily. Raven used her powers to throw part of the piles at him, but he also dodged that as well. The girls tried once more, and Mumbo jumped into the air as he laughed at their attempts. Beast Boy charged at him as a raptor and bared his teeth. Mumbo used his hand to vault over him and Beast Boy didn't have enough time to stop. He rammed straight towards a smelly column of garbage, which he was buried in once he plowed into it.

Beast Boy popped up from the garbage and shook a half-clean diaper, a tattered piece of someone's shirt, and a plum with a bite mark in it off of his head. "What is it with this loser?" he asked, irritated. He ran in a vain endeavor to tackle Mumbo to the floor, but Mumbo turned in time to see him.

"Not so fast!" he smirked, waving his stupid wand that made him look like a magician from Vegas. Beast Boy's pants pooled around his ankles as his belt loosened by some mysterious force and he tripped, tumbling and falling head-first into another stack of trash. At least he had changed his underwear from this morning, he thought as he spat out an orange peel. He picked himself up and pulled up his trousers, buckling his belt three times tighter than before. Was he just destined to go around with his pants down today?

"Teen Titans, Go!" he heard Cyborg cry from behind. He looked up and there was Cyborg, leaping through the air with something strapped to his back. He let loose a blast from his sonic canon and miraculously hit Mumbo squarely in the chest. Mumbo grunted as he was thrown back by the force of the blow. Mumbo groaned and a soda can hit his bald head before he placed his top hat back on and shot back up. He tugged on his sleeves and smiled.

"Nothing up my sleeve," he said, yanking a chain of colored rags out from his shirt. "And, _presto!_" He whipped the chain, and they seemed to come to life, wrapping themselves around Cyborg in a similar manner to the way the shop keep had been tied up.

"Whoa!" he cried as he was pulled to the floor.

"Hiyah!" Robin screamed as he sent a flying kick Mumbo's way.

"Need a hand?" The two-bit magician asked smartly. As Robin dropped past a bunch of open-ended pipes, one of Mumbo's hands reached out and grabbed his cape. Robin made a surprised sound as he was yanked back, held in mid air as his scrawny legs flailed. From the pipes came an army of Mumbo's fists, and soon robin's limbs were a blur as he dodged and blocked attacks.

"Azarath Mentrion _Zinthos_!" Raven grunted, raising her hands into the air before slamming them down to her thighs. Three particularly heavy chunks of metal blocks were hurtling at Mumbo's head and he used his frustrating "magic" again. He opened his hands to the air and the metal blocks stopped in midair. Then he closed his fists and the metal chunks became a flurry of rose petals that fell gently to the floor.

"If you think that's good, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" Mumbo traced the brim of his hat with three fingers before pulling it off and holding it with both hands. "Hocus Pocus!" Before Raven could think about what was happening, more than what seemed like ten thousand fluffy, adorable bunnies piled onto her. They were so cute that her skin felt like it was burning when the fuzzy white fur touched her. When the flow of bunnies finally stopped, she was completely buried.

Beast Boy scowled and morphed into a goat. This lame-o was done for now. He charged at him, horns first, and baaed. "Pick a card," Mumbo told him, shuffling a deck of cards. He split them in two and cried, "_Every_ card!" The cards enlarged almost thirty sizes and hit Beast Boy dead center. He baaed once more and was thrown back, his head throbbing. Ouch, and he though he had landed on a soda can, or an old book---something pointy sticking him in the side.

"For my next trick, I'll need a lovely assistant," Mumbo declared. He produced a cane from nowhere and yanked Starfire right out of the sky. With it he placed her into a box where only her head and feet stuck out. She struggled against what looked like an ordinary maple-wood and Mumbo smirked at her. He pulled an elongated sword with triangular teeth out from his pocket.

"It's only fair to warn you," Mumbo told her, "I have no idea what I'm doing.

Before he could hack into Starfire, who lay helplessly in the air within the confines of the unnaturally strong box, Cyborg tackled Mumbo from behind. The two skidded across the Junkyard and Mumbo screamed. Dirt was thrown up into the air and Mumbo hacked violently. When the cloud cleared, Beast Boy saw that Cyborg had Mumbo pinned to the ground. And yet this magician dork was still smiling at him? "I hate fighting dirty," Mumbo went on, and Beast Boy's stomach sunk. What was the guy planning now? "Shall we clean you up?" the flower pin on his breast pocket squirted a fountain of water that turned quickly into a geyser. The force of the water threw Cyborg up into the air and off of Mumbo. He landed in a dump truck and that was all Beast Boy could see before he was out of his sight.

"Cyborg?" Robin yelled as he ran to the truck. "Cyborg?" He called again.

The engine of the dump truck revved loudly and Robin looked up. In the drivers' seat sat Mumbo, whose hands were on the wheel as he checked the mirrors of the truck. "Exit, stage left." Mumbo stomped on the gas pedal and the dump truck went flying out of the Junkyard at more than sixty miles an hour, leaving only tire tracks behind. Robin stood with his feet spread apart, mouth open.

"Titans, he's got Cyborg!" That was all he had to tell them before they went chasing after the dump truck. Man, what had just taken place here? They had just been humiliated by some magician with a jewelry fetish; then Cyborg had come to kick the guys butt; now he had been _kidnapped _by him! Beast Boy adored Cyborg, he was his best friend and all, but what kind of superhero got kidnapped? The titans chased Mumbo until he figured out he was being followed. Mumbo checked his review mirror and frowned.

"Bail out!" Mumbo shouted, kicking open the drivers side door and tucking himself into a ball. He threw himself out onto the round and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The dump truck swerved out of control before crashing into a nearby building. The truck's engine failed and smoke billowed out from under the hood. Starfire took the opportunity to check to see if Cyborg was hidden beneath any of the garbage. When she came out, Beast Boy could smell the fear on her. Not good.

"Cyborg is not inside!" she wailed as she landed next to Robin. The boy wonder flipped open his communicator and checked for a signal.

"And his locator signal's being jammed." He exhaled noisily and shut it with a snap, shoving it back into his utility belt. "It doesn't make sense. Why would Mumbo want to kidnap Cyborg?" he asked the team. Beast Boy was about to shrug when something shiny caught his eye. Raven might have blamed his inability to pay attention for more than a few seconds, but to him it was shining like a fire at nighttime. It looked like…a hat.

"Guys, over here!" Beast Boy said over his shoulder. He picked up the object---yep, it was definitely a hat, Beast Boy decided. Mumbo's magic hat---and turned on all sides. "I found something."

He peered into the hat and heard Robin warn him, "I wouldn't---"

The team never found out what Robin wouldn't do because there was a flash of light and an entire flock of birds expelled from the hat. After what felt like hours of flapping and pecking, the birds cleared away. The titans stood with their hair disheveled and feathers stuck out of them at odd angles. Raving lifted her cloak and grimaced while Beast Boy blew a stray feather away from him.

"Way to go," she congratulated Beast Boy sarcastically. Beast Boy frowned, brushing the feathers off of his head.

"How was I supposed to know that a bunch of dumb birds were gunna attack us?" he replied and she looked at him strangely.

"Maybe because things like that have been happening all day?" Raven sneered. Beast Boy glared at her, crossing his arms. Did she always have a reply for everything he said to her? And when she looked at him like that, God, he felt like she was trying to see through him! Like she could figure everything about him out, shine the light in all the dark parts of his mind.

Her eyes were made to scare him off, to make him feel like she was trying to telekinetically set him on fire. But they were so wide it made it hard for him to think of her as evil, and they were such a nice color---Starfire sneezed loudly behind them, flying an inch off the ground. Beast Boy turned around before he could get sucked into her stupid eye tricks again. There had to be something wrong with him if he kept acting like that around her. A bus disappeared from existence a few blocks away before reappearing across the street.

"Mumbo!" Robin muttered, clenching his fist. The titans took off to the scene of all the chaotic magic in time to see a mailbox bounce around the corner. It spit out a rabbit before belching out another one. A woman in a purple dress surrounded by three hoola hoops floated away into the sky afterwards.

"Well I'll give this much for Mumbo; he's an easy act to follow," Beast Boy smiled, checking Raven's reaction. No smile, no laughter, not even the signature roll of the eyes to show that she had been listening. She must have been seriously worried if she didn't even want to criticize his jokes.

"Oh!" Starfire moaned. "I would commit myself to a life of muck shoveling in the filth mines of Quarnaks if Cyborg could only be returned safely!" She bit her lip and looked heavenward, her hands in a praying position.

"He was malfunctioning," Raven stated dully. "He shouldn't have been helping."

"I tried to stop him," Robin told her. "But he's, Cyborg." Beast Boy smiled at that. Thick-skulled and stubborn, once Cyborg got an idea in his head he wouldn't give it up for the world.

"Mumbo jumbo!" they heard someone cry from around the block, and the titans went running again. Robin skidded and nearly missed Mumbo holding his hands out and cackling. ATM's surrounded him, spewing money by the thousands. He spotted the titans and raised an eyebrow. "Sorry folks," he apologized, removing his hat as an act of sincerity. The money was sucked into the hat like a vacuum until there wasn't even a single dollar bill lying on the floor. "Not time for autographs." Instead of throwing yet another smoke bomb, Mumbo turned and fled, his cape flapping behind him.

"Titans," Robin ordered, throwing his finger out at Mumbo, "get him!"

Raven chased him into an alley with no escape. Mr. Magic couldn't get away now, she had him! Of course, Mumbo had to prove her wrong by crying, "Open says me!" and running towards the brick wall, head first. One by one, the bricks were pulled aside and creating an exit for the magician. The hole in the wall closed instantaneously once Mumbo was safely on the other side, sealing off Raven. She stopped with her hands out; she would have phased through the wall, but she wasn't sure what kind of magic Mumbo was dealing with. For all she knew, Mumbo could have jinxed the wall to send her into another dimension instead of the other side of the alley!

Beast Boy scraped his hoof against the cobble stone and snorted. Mumbo stopped where he was standing and watched as Beast Boy charged at him in bull form, horns sharp. He smiled and pulled his cape in front of him, flashing Beast Boy the red underside. _Ha!_ Beast Boy thought triumphantly. The whole bulls-hate-red-gimmick was a bunch of bull-spit. Bulls reacted to the way the cloth was undulating, and Beast Boy was human enough to avoid that! He definitely had this loser now!

Or course he hadn't expected Mumbo to conjure up a concrete wall.

Like, ow!

"Ole!" Mumbo bragged, stomping his feet and snapping his hands in a bull matador fashion. Beast Boy lay on the floor, seeing stars, when Mumbo made his mad dash once more. His head was pounding, and he couldn't think straight enough to keep an animal form for more than two----one---second.

"Auugh!" he whined, curling into a ball. His skull felt like it had been cracked open, but there wasn't any blood. Surely he had to have some internal bleeding or something! Ow…but it hurt so much…

"What did you do now?" Raven asked as she looked down at him. He opened one eye with two hands clamped firmly over his head and sniffed. God, don't tell him he was going to start tearing up in front of her! It was just a minor…concussion…of some sort. He didn't need to start bawling in front of Raven, who would probably make fun of him later. Instead of mocking him, like he had expected her to do, she sighed and crouched down next to him.

"Let me see." Beast Boy obeyed silently, and she placed one hand gently on his head---directly on the center of pain. He yelped and jerked away, but Raven kept her hand there. "It's just a bump," she said with a hint of irritation, but her hands stayed tender. All at once, the pain in his head faded away as she activated her healing powers. Raven grimaced and wiped the sweat from his head on her cloak while Beast Boy shook his head.

"Thanks for that, Rae…ven," he added apprehensively.

_Don'tlookathereyesdon'tlookathereyesdon'tlookathereyesdon'tlookathereyesdont'---_

Dammit, he looked!Was it just the way the light was hitting them, or did they look more like indigo today than violet? And since when did she have hazel flecks in the irises? Since when did he compare colors, anyway?But her eyes were so beautiful…Crap, was he breathing fast again? Oh god, he was, wasn't he? And his heart rate was going up too, crap! Could she sense how nervous he was getting? What was she thinking right now? Was she thinking about how stupid he was acting? Was she embarrassed about how embarrassed he was getting? Or worse, could she hear what he was thinking now, too?

_Ugh, why does she have to see through me like that!_

Mumbo's signature laugh was heard again, to which Raven and Beast Boy ran towards. Beast Boy was actually glad that another sign of the villain had been found. If he had stared at her for any longer, he would have either gone crazy or wet himself…or something else humiliating.

Mumbo jumped and ran up a fire escape on the side of an apartment, reaching the roof and laughing at the titans, sticking out his tongue, before running away. Starfire and Raven flew up after him as Beast Boy, in kangaroo form, came bouncing behind them. As they leaped from rooftop to rooftop, Beast Boy realized that this was really starting to annoy him. If only this guy would just give up Cyborg! Mumbo turned and let loose a whirlwind of spells at his pursuers.

"Abracadabra! Alakazam! Hocus Pocus!" With each wave of his wand there was a backlash of magical energy. The titans ducked, dodged and weaved as they avoided being hit. Who knew what would happen if they were hit? Turned into pineapples, grow an extra arm on their foreheads? Mumbo chortled openly, taking the opportunity to gloat. "You'll never stop the amazing Mumbo!" he cried, waggling one finger and holding his wand out like a sword. "Never! Nev---"

The wand was ripped from his hand as Robin dove from above him. The titans' leader scowled and snapped the wand in half. Raven could sense the confidence just ooze off of him; it was so strong it was almost visible, saturating him. "NOOOOO!" Mumbo wailed, throwing his arms up and freezing in a cowardly position. From both pockets came a stream of sacks filled with stolen money, and he began to burst into tears. His hat vanished, as did the rest of his costume. He was suddenly a normal looking middle-aged man, with brown pants and a crisp white shirt with dark suspenders. His skin faded into a normal flesh color and he was on his knees, defenseless.

Finally, he was at the titans' mercy.

Robin grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, utterly serious now. "No more tricks! Where. Is. Cyborg?" he asked menacingly, enunciating each word slowly.

"How should I know?" Mumbo solicited pathetically.

Robin wouldn't have any of that. He brought Mumbo closer to his face and spat, "Where is he?!"

"You took him from the Junkyard!" Raven accused, her eyes sharper than needles.

"What have you done with him?" Starfire questioned shrilly, hands on hips.

"Nothing!" Mumbo pleaded. "Honest! When you broke my wand, you broke all my spells. Even if I had done something, it'd be over now. Poof!" He waved his hands desperately to emphasize his point. Well, if you couldn't trust an illusionist that had just robbed three ATM's and a jewelry store, who could you trust?

"He'd be standing right here!" Mumbo pressed. Robin pushed him back to the floor, revolted.

"If Cy's not with him, then he must be at…." Beast Boy trailed off.

"The Junkyard!" the titans all said in unison.

Mumbo grinned innocently. "So, do I still have to go to jail?" The titans stared down at him, stone-faced. "I thought so…" Robin tied him up with a spare rope, making sure to tighten it severely because of all the annoying trouble Mumbo had put them through. He dumped Mumbo off by the police station with a note that read: ONE MAGICIAN, ALL WASHED UP, READY FOR ARREST. As soon as the titans were rid of the nuisance that was Mumbo, they ran as fast as they could to the Junkyard. Again, Beast Boy was assaulted with a combination of smells that made his eyes burn, but he kept on an okay face for his friends.

After a few minutes of searching, Robin called to the team. He had found a rather large sinkhole that led to an empty underground area below. Beast Boy and Starfire kneeled above and watched while Raven stood behind. Robin leaped down and landed on his haunches, picking up a large object with both hands.

"His battery pack," Robin announced. "He must've fallen down here!" Beast Boy nodded and followed Robin's lead, jumping in after him. He bent his knees to absorb the impact and a slight tremor went through his body before he stood up straight and saw Starfire and Raven float down. "Star, can you give us some light?" Robin asked, and Starfire complied, raising her left hand. It began to glow a brilliant green light, but even with the added illumination, all Beast Boy could see was a vast nothingness. Robin led the way and the titans began to call out their missing friend's name.

"Cyborg!"

"Cy!"

"Cyborg?"

"_Cyborg_!"

After another few minutes of calling out, Robin stopped in his tracks and gasped. Towering over him stood a giant…_thing_. All Beast Boy knew was that it was huge and metal and everything was starting to smell like oil. Beast Boy gawked up at it with childlike innocence. "Whoa…" Then he chuckled nervously when he saw that there were more robot things surrounding them. "Any of you guys seen a dude about this tall---" he stood on his toes and raised his arm to show Cyborg's height---"one red eye---" he stabbed a thumb at his own right eye---"and titanium body armor?" The sinister looking robots refused to answer, closing in even farther as the red glow in their eyes began to get extremely eerie.

"Teen Titans, Go!" Robin shouted. Starfire started to fire of star bolt in random directions while Robin karate-kicked a group of robots in the face. Beast Boy growled and morphed into a gorilla. Beast Boy enveloped one of the larger robots in a bear hug before ripping it apart. From beside him, Raven's eyes shone a bright white light and she chanted silently before slashing her hands every which way, slicing the giant robot into pieces.

Beast Boy changed back into a human form and whipped his head around, looking for anymore foes to come forth from the darkness. So far, nothing lunged to attack him. He stood in a ready position to fight, breathing heavily. Starfire stood with both hands glowing and Robin looked around. More robots started to encircle the titans and the group backed away, forming a tighter cluster. A thought popped into Beast Boy's head and he decided that, in case the robots ended up eating them alive, he needed to tell Raven something. You know, so she would know before she became mulch.

"Rae, I wanna say something," Beast Boy whispered.

"Not now, idiot!" Raven hissed back.

Beast Boy scowled. "No, I need to tell you something _now. _If we don't make it, I---"

Then something both awesome and freaky happened: The robots stopped.

"Huh?" Robin asked, utterly confused. Beast Boy squinted, straining his eyes to see further. Even with his enhanced vision, the darkness was too creepy. It was too…dark. But he could swear that he could see something, just a little farther away---

"Hey! I can see a light!" Beast Boy shouted, his voice echoing on the walls. "Dudes, come on!" Beast Boy yelled, and the titans ran towards the light. Even if it wasn't where Cyborg was, there was no way Beast Boy was going to stay blind in that endless tunnel for even three more seconds. As they entered into the light, Beast Boy noticed that it was a giant room, filled with broken parts and pieces, screens and scrolls, bolts and bits, screws and tools.

And in the center of it all was Cyborg, who was kneeling on the floor.

"Cyborg," Robin said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" Cyborg said, picking himself up.

"So beautiful," a creepy voice murmured, scaring the bejeepers out of Beast Boy. There was a lanky old man on the floor, trembling as he covered his pale face with one clawed hand. His eyes shone with a glassed-over look. "I had forgotten how beautiful…the world…through your eyes," the creepy man said, a saddened expression on his long face.

"Through human eyes," Cyborg corrected. He knelt down next to the creepy man. "The same eyes you have."

The creepy man looked at his open palm and clenched his fist. "Perhaps _I_ am the one in need of repairs." Cyborg extended a hand.

"And maybe I'm the guy who can help repair you."

The creepy man looked up and smiled, something that looked scary on his face. He accepted Cyborg's hand and he helped him to his feet. "I know you must leave now, friend, but please come by once more."

Cyborg smiled. "You can bet on that."

The creepy man showed the titans their way back to the outside world and said his goodbyes with Cyborg. Robin asked his cybernetic teen who that man had been, and Cyborg had replied, telling the titans that the man was a hermit who had found him at the dump. He had repaired him and things had gotten a bit hectic, but all in all, it had ended up okay.

"So some weirdo holds you hostage and you're totally cool with it because he fixed you up?" Beast Boy asked incredulously. Cyborg shrugged.

"Nothin' bad really happened, so----yeah, I guess so."

"Makes sense to me," Beast Boy said, shrugging as well. Raven rolled her eyes.

"Of course it would. You're the same person who thought that if you dug far enough through the center of the Earth, you'd make it to China." Beast Boy felt the tips of his ears burn when his teammates started to laugh at him.

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone that theory!" he whined, and Raven smirked. "And that is a _totally_ acceptable idea, man," he added, waggling a finger at her.

"It's still a great day out, titans," Robin started. Cyborg grinned.

"How 'bout we finish up out football game, huh?" Beast Boy, Cyborg, Robin and Starfire cheered, leaving Raven to lethargically watch all the excitement. When they all started to look at her, she sighed and twirled her index finger in the air.

"Woo.

Hoo."

---

Why, oh Azar, why was she doing this?

Simple: Because she wanted to.

Oh, she would make sure to pretend to be as miserable as possible as she lazily dragged herself into position, barely catching the ball with the tips of her fingers and chasing down her teammates. But even she had to admit, football could actually be enjoyable. While Cyborg ditched the game to play catch to two little kids, Raven had been "dragged" back into the game as his replacement. And, Robin, as competitive as he was, could be a good sports partner if he tried not to get on her nerves.

Most of the time.

"It's football, Raven, you have to get into it," he enthused. When Raven merely blinked in response, he huddled in closer to her and whispered, "Just get Beast Boy, okay?" Raven blinked again, but nodded as a sign of intelligence, proving that she actually was paying attention. "On my cue---red! Twenty four! Hut, hut…Hike!" Raven chucked the ball underneath her legs and right before Beast Boy could ram into Robin, the boy wonder cried out "Now!"

Following her orders, Raven obediently tackled Beast Boy to the ground. He let out a large breath as she barreled into him, bringing him down to the ground. He looked up at her, stupefied. Raven turned around and saw that Starfire and Robin were also looking at her in a peculiar way. "What?" she asked.

Robin blinked. "Uh…this isn't tackle football, Raven."

Oh, the mortification! To cover up her mistake, Raven crossed her arms and said, "Well, I still think it was a pretty good attempt."

"See, there she is!" someone said from behind. That voice…where had she heard it from? It sounded so familiar… Raven turned and saw that none other than Gar stood behind, pointing a finger at her. His mop of hair was still tucked away inside that knitted cap, the same strands sticking out unruly, the same green shirt that was about three sizes too big. Now that she thought about it, he looked pretty cute for someone his age.

Standing next to him was an extremely pale girl with long black hair and eyes such a deep blue they could pass for purple, covered with long eyelashes. She had on a black sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, along with a blue pair of sneakers. She had one hand clasped firmly around Gar's, while the other hung limply at her side.

"Remember me, Raven?" he called to the half-demon, waving his arm but never letting go of the girl. He was holding onto her like she was an IV cord. Then, to the girl beside him he said: "Told you she knew me, Ray!"

Raven looked around to make sure that no one was looking before she walked over. To her annoyance, so did Beast Boy. "I didn't know you had a fan club, Raven!" Beast Boy declared happily and Raven swatted the back of his head.

"Shut up, Beast Boy. Now, what do you want from me now, Gar?" Raven asked the boy hurriedly. Why was Beast Boy smiling like that, anyway?

Gar shrugged. "My friend Rachel didn't believe me when I told her that you knew me. I told you though, didn't I Ray?" Gar sneered to the girl, and she frowned, a wrinkle appearing between to furrowed eyebrows on her porcelain-like face. She smacked his arm, but in a way meant not to hurt him.

"Shut up, Gar. Anyone would have thought you were lying about that, because you always _are_ lying. I don't know why you think you're so funny," Rachel scolded. Gar smiled.

"But you love my sense of humor, Ray~" he sang happily, and Rachel clicked her tongue at him. She muttered something like "idiot" under her breath before yanking the hood of her sweatshirt up.

"Alright, well, later Raven," Gar said suddenly. Raven raised an eyebrow.

"What makes you think that we'll meet again?" she asked with crossed arms.

Gar shrugged. "Because I know you have a thing for funny guys in green."

Gar and the Rachel girl walked away, leaving Raven with her mouth open in an 'o' of surprise while Beast Boy bent over and laughed. That was all it took to get Beast Boy howling with laughter, clutching his sides as tears streamed down his face.

"What are you laughing about?" She snarled, and Beast Boy wiped his eyes.

"N-Nothing, Rae." She frowned at him before stalking off to hide underneath a tree. Beast Boy smiled at her back and let another chuckle trickle out.

Gar and Ray? How ironic was the world going to get?

---

Beast Boy stood in front of his mirror with his shirt off, staring at his stick-like arms. His way-too skinny arms. He had seen Robin before when some of the titans had gone to the pool last summer---Raven had refused to go and Cyborg wasn't able to get so wet---but holy _shit_. For someone almost as short as Raven, it was a pretty big surprise to see him so ripped. But, you know, he trained twenty-four-seven when Beast Boy would sit and play video games. Beast Boy moved his eyes back to his face, which still had too much baby-fat left, and pinched his cheek. Why did he have to be green, of all the colors?

"…_Green is my second favorite color…"_

Beast Boy cracked a smile at how totally mortified Raven had looked when she blurted that out. It must have been something completely random, but it was still funny. He just wished she had her hood down at the time so he could see how red she turned---the fact that her heart had almost busted out of her chest it was pumping so loudly suggested as much.

And then she had hunted him down and demanded to know what Beast Boy had wanted to tell her back in Fixit's lab that was _so important_ that he had to mention it in the middle of a fight. Beast Boy had shrugged. He had wanted to say that in case they didn't make it out, he would always kind of consider her a friend, as weird as she was. She wasn't _completely_ creepy. She did have _some_ form of friends. He had just figured out now that he loved her eyes---in the most no-obsessive way, of course. And that even if she didn't think so, she was pretty. But instead, he had shrugged. He had shrugged and told her: "I wanted to tell you that even when we were dead, I would still be able to throw better than you." She had 'tched' and shoved him, calling him an idiot before walking away.

Beast Boy looked at himself once more before slipping his shirt back on.

Maybe being green wasn't _too_ bad.


	6. Nevermore Part I

**I want to thank Wolvmbm for giving me the ingenious idea to split the chapter into two parts from both Beast Boy's and Raven's point of view, and the brilliant Mythar for all of his help so far---seriously, your critic(sp?) rocks. I'm very sorry for how long it took, but it's finally up! I've been dealing with a fever of over one hundred and my computer refuses to start sometimes, but I'm happy to appease you all with the story! I was in such a rush that I didn't get a good chance to read this at a time other than two in the morning, so please forgive the stupid mistakes---I will fix them!**

**Enjoy!**

**---**

Beast Boy yawned and shoveled another spoonful of hap-hazardously sugared cereal into his open mouth. It didn't even taste like cereal, just blocks of soggy sugar cubes, but he didn't really mind. The Titans' had no food left after dinner last night, when Beast Boy had once again started an argument with Cyborg over dinner, and had tossed all of his best friends precious meat into the toilet. Cyborg, disgusted that any human would even do such a thing to the murder-meat that brought him so much joy, ransacked the refrigerator of any soy-and-or-tofu based good. He then threw all of Beast Boy's---it was considered _his _food because, after all of his persuasion, none of his friends would even try tofu---food out of the window.

So that was why Beast Boy was sitting at the island in the kitchen area, with his feet dangling a few feet off of the ground, spooning diabetes-inducing cereal down his throat for dinner. Cyborg was out buying food (probably only his murder-patties, Beast Boy scoffed) while Beast Boy drank the last of his soy milk out of the ceramic cereal bowl before placing it in the sink.

He was so bored.

He waltzed over to the living room and grunted as he threw himself over the couch, legs spread apart and one arm hanging off, touching the floor. He turned on the game station, hoping to relieve his boredom. He picked the controller up and stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth. He quickly went through all of the characters he and Cyborg had unlocked while playing mercilessly for hours at end before settling on one he had custom made (it had only cost him one thousand coins, too!) The character had a green skin color---thanks to Cyborg's hacking---and was wearing as close as the video-gamers could have made to his uniform. He had added in the vampire teeth, the only thing he could use as fangs. Now, if only he could buy that set of elf ears, it would look like his exact match...

_Thump_!

What was that?

He paused the game right before his character dropped from the sky, giving him an odd, frozen-statue look. Beast Boy tilted his head and concentrated on listening to the room upstairs where the noise had come from. It sounded as if it had come directly above him...who was in that room again? He thought for a second, ears twitching as he strained to hear, and then he realized that it was Raven's room placed inconveniently above the main room. For someone who hated noise, she sure picked a strange spot to place her room. He waited a few more moments, and once he was greeted by silence, he shrugged and went back to playing his game. The doomsday music played in the background as he pillaged through the abandoned virtual town, kicking down doors and breaking in through windows (what a game for a superhero!) He saw something sparkle in the corner of the screen and he adjusted the characters vision so that he was looking straight at it. Sweet! It was a chest full of gold! Now, if only he could unlock the---

_Thump_!

_Thump_!

_THUMP_!!

What the _h__ell_ was that?!

Beast Boy paused the game once more, the main menu popping up in the middle of the screen and concentrated on listening. Something was definitely going on upstairs. Those sounds sounded as if someone was...throwing themselves into a wall, or something. But why would Raven be throwing herself at a wall? He knew she was a freak, but he didn't think she would try to cause herself bodily harm. The sounds stopped for a second time, and he continued on with his game. He played for a half an hour before sighing and giving up, dropping the controller into his lap.

Ugh, what was there to do here, anyway? The training room was a definite no, since Robin was probably sweating his tights off, working out hard enough to make Beast Boy feel bad about himself. Cyborg was gone for now, so he had nothing else to do either. Starfire, well, she was okay, but she had a thing with Robin and Beast Boy didn't want to get any kind of misunderstandings. The library---ha! Like he'd ever step foot in there! With his luck, he'd run into Raven---if she ever managed to yank herself out of her room. She stowed away in there like the outside world was poisonous. She totally didn't like any of them, something that she made perfectly clear.

And if anything, she hated Beast Boy with a burning passion.

Sure, she seemed to smell nervous around him; sure, her heartbeat sped up every time he was near her. But she didn't like people; she was nervous around everyone. She was just anti-social, the exact opposite of a people person. The exact opposite of Beast Boy. He felt a surge of regret that she didn't feel anything different about him than anyone else.

Tch, why should he? She was just that creepy girl who hated his guts. All those times she would catch him looking at her from his peripheral vision, she would give him a look that said "don't stare at me, creep." You couldn't even call it staring---he was just...so, okay, maybe he would stare at her from time to time. So what, sue 'im. She was just so _there_, in all meaning of the word, that she made it hard to ignore her, as much as she wished that people would.

_No one else except me notices as much about Raven._

The thought came to him like a bolt of lightning and he dismissed it quickly. That was plain idiocy. Why would he, of all people, notice Raven more than any one else? Stupidity, that's all it was. Stupid, stupid Beast Boy. Why would I ever think something like that?

To keep himself from answering the open-ended question he had just asked, Beast Boy pressed a button on the remote and the television flickered to life. He flicked through channels one to one hundred without even registering what the show was about. All he had really seen had been a commercial for that new rag-cleaner, "Sham Woo-Hoo" and a bit of a stupid reality show called "The Mountains." Nothing interesting in the least.

He would pay for the for the alarm to go off right now. Even a beat down from the H.I.V.E. would be more entertaining than just sitting here, on the couch, doing nothing but---

_WEE_-OO!

_WEE_-OO!

_WEE_-OO!

As the Beast Boy went on with his rant about boredom, the alarm went off throughout the entire tower. "Yes!" he hissed silently under his breath, sliding off the couch and running to the tower's main computer screen. A yellow dot was blinking rapidly on the screen near a street corner. Who did they assign the yellow dot to again? Slade was going to be orange, the H.I.V.E. was blue, the red dot was Plasmas---

"Dr. Light's at it again!" Robin shouted over the alarm. Beast Boy jumped. He hadn't even noticed the Titans enter the room over the roaring siren. Sure enough, Starfire was floating a few inches off the ground behind their traffic-light colored leader. Raven stood in the back of the team, shoulders hunched and irritation clear on her face. Was it just Beast Boy's imagination, or was she...swaying? Was she okay? Was she hurt? More importantly, why did he suddenly feel so concerned? Cyborg came running in seconds later, arms full with paper bags filled to the top with---as Beast Boy suggested---mainly meat products. At least he had managed to spare him some grief and picked up some cheap tofu eggs and soy milk.

Beast Boy felt his shoulders slumped. Dr. Light? Damn. They couldn't fight an actual super villain? What fun would this be if their only challenge was some lame-o with a high-powered flashlight? With crushed hopes of defeating his boredom, Beast Boy flew sadly behind his teammates to the "villains" position. As he soared with them, he glanced at Raven. She totally wasn't feeling well; her flight pattern kept changing as she would waver in the air as she flew, and Beast Boy could swear she had held her head for a brief second before shaking her it and continuing on her sloppy flight.

The Titans dropped to the street, stopping the black-clad bad guy in his tracks. They were spread apart strategically, blocking off all means of escape. The only way Light was getting out of here was by getting through all five of them, and that wasn't very likely. Dr. Light turned to them and frowned, the thoughts going through his mind obvious in his dark, baggy eyes that gave him an insomniac-like appearance. His jumpsuit was entirely black except for the cuffs of his sleeves and his belt, while a light bulb symbol was pasted onto his chest. His helmet was plastered onto his head, covering his greasy black hair. And his stupid goatee looked as if it hadn't been washed in weeks, the changeling thought passively. Dr. Light stood proudly atop an armored van that had flipped onto its side, hands aglow with energy. "Your pathetic skills can't outshine the brilliance of Dr. Light!" He thundered, thrusting his fists out at the Titans and the air crackled with electricity. The atmosphere was intensely hot for a few seconds before a ray of light was fired at the heroes. Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire jumped out of the way from the oncoming blast, the street cracking at the impact.

Robin jumped after Dr. Light, tearing a bird-a-rang out of his belt and throwing it towards the villain. Dr. Light dropped to the ground, out of the way of the Boy Wonder, and Robin landed angrily on the truck. "You're fast," Dr. Light noted, "but I doubt you'll like moving at the speed of light!"

What was it with this dude and all of his dumb light puns?

Dr. Light yanked open the light bulb symbol on his chest, activating a hidden laser and blasting Robin away. Beast Boy growled, already morphing into a wolf. Okay, this loser had had enough fun tonight. It was time to say goodnight and goodbye, Beast Boy thought, rushing the light-obsessed bad guy. Dr. Light side-stepped him, narrowly avoiding the rows of sharp teeth Beast Boy had planned on tearing him to shreds with. "A wolf is no threat when it's blind as a bat!" Dr. Light sang as he danced away from the green canine, pulling some form of flash-bombs out of his utility belt and throwing them at Beast Boy. There was a sound resembling firecrackers that surrounded him, snapping loudly in his ears. To a regular human, it would have only been mildly frustrating. But with his super-sensitive hearing, the bombs seemed to be exploding individually in his head. And the blinding light---yeah, that was painful, too. His eyes felt as if they had popped out of his skull and he honestly couldn't see anything but bright, white lights dancing in front of him. He couldn't maintain wolf form for less than a second before he had transformed back into normal form, clamping his hands over his pointed ears.

Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop!!

Beast Boy groaned and his eyes rolled in his head wildly. The bombs had all died out, but the explosions still echoed in his mind. His head pounded angrily, and he still couldn't see anything. He vaguely heard Dr. Light say another outdated, lame light pun, but it took a few more seconds before he could see again. Just to make sure, Beast Boy shook his head, as if he was emptying it of all the noise ricocheting inside of his skull. When he blinked his vision clear, he saw Cyborg stuck in a clump of melted metal, declared immobile and useless. Dr. Light smirked and stepped closer to the armored truck. "Now, if nobody minds, I'll be taking the gold."

"I mind," a familiar, monotonous voice informed him. Beast Boy's head whipped around and he saw Raven, hands raised and palms splayed as she glared at Dr. Light. All traces of her mysterious fatigue seemed to disappear as she stood in a fighting position. Two swirls of dark energy crept out from her finger tips as she cried, "Azarath Mentrion Zin---!" Dr. Light hit her right in the chest and she cried out in pain as the light hit her, sending her flying backwards a few feet. She skidded down the street and Beast Boy clenched his fists. How _dare _that---that---that _bastard_ hurt her so badly that she ended up on the floor like that! Anger filled him but he could do nothing---he was still weak from the flash-bombs, and would only get in the empath's way---and that seemed to frustrate him even further.

"A bit of advice," Dr. Light chided in a condescending tone. Raven widened her eyes involuntarily and stared up at him. What was she doing? Why wasn't she kicking his butt? What was wrong with her?! "Find shorter magic words." Raven ground her teeth together and her eyes shone pure white. From down the street, she encased a motorcycle in a black aura and chucked it at Dr. Light; Beast Boy really hoped the poor fellow who owned the bike had auto-insurance. Without even flinching, Dr. Light raised one hand and deflected the blow by blasting the motorcycle to bits. As Raven recovered from using her powers so quickly, Dr. Light hit her, again, with another blast of electrical energy. She screamed and went up into the air, again, and fell to the street with a grunt. Her entire frame shuddered as she landed on her left arm, all of her weight transferring on top of it. Beast Boy winced; he could feel the pain from here. Bravely, she picked herself up and sat on the floor, head down.

Was she out? Beast Boy wondered. Had she pulled an "Elvis has left the building"? Finished, done for, K.O., defeated, audios amigos? Well, if that ever was the case, Beast Boy would make sure that he would rip Light's throat out. Dr. Light confidently walked onward towards her, hoping to end the battle quickly. Raven muttered something under her breath, but Beast Boy thought it sounded like "Don't come any closer." His instincts began screaming a warning that he should run for the hills and hide. But that was ridiculous.

What was the worse that could happen?

"What's the matter, afraid of the light?" Dr. Light jeered. Bad choice of words on his part.

A very bad move.

Raven snarled and threw back her cape, features twisted in an ugly and terrifying grimace. Her eyes were blood red, as if a lantern had been lit with in her and the crimson light came flooding out. Horrified, Beast Boy watched as she grew almost twenty feet higher, towering over Dr. Light. He watched as her teeth elongated dangerously, sharp enough to tear through flesh, reminding him of old vampire legends. He watched as black tentacles came from beneath her cloak which blew around her form, snapping and popping, moving on their own accord. He watched as she changed from the Raven he knew into something...evil. The hairs on the back of Beast Boy's neck stood up and a shiver went down his spine. This, he knew, was what his instincts had always been warning him about Raven. This was the danger of the demon-girl that Beast Boy had never known but in a way, always had. This was the true darkness that was Raven.

This was what she really was.

Dr. Light started to back up, but that wasn't enough. The tentacles lashed out and grabbed him, causing the villain to scream in defiance. "No! No! My suit!" he cried as his specially-made outfit was destroyed in a matter of seconds. Raven continued to drag him slowly, torturing the poor man, and he clawed at the ground, trying to find purchase in the smooth street and find something to grab on to. There was nothing. "What are you---No! No! I surrender!" Dr. Light yelped helplessly as Raven pulled him under her cloak. Her face was contorted in a grim satisfaction, as if she took pleasure in his screams. His cries for help looked as if they were fueling her, egging her on and making her act of evil justified. Her sharp teeth clinked together as she smiled the most heart-freezing, blood-curdling smile Beast Boy had ever seen. He had always wanted her to smile more, but not if it meant for her to do this. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead as he watched, still unable to even defend the poor bad guy.

"What's the matter?" Raven mocked gleefully, her eyes still a ghastly red color, casting a bloody shadow on her face. Her voice sounded not like her own, but in a voice that sounded neither human nor any other kind of being Beast Boy had ever heard of. It was laced with malice and dripping with venom, but had the sickly insane happiness that caused it to tip the scale---the voice of Satan Himself. "Afraid of the dark?" Beast Boys stomach wrenched as Dr. Light was pulled under.

"I surrender!" Dr. Light shouted pathetically one last time before he disappeared from view. Raven smiled a bone-chilling close-lipped smile and looked as if she were trying not to laugh. As if she found the horror show amusing. The corners of her mouth curled upwards in a smirk and she bared her teeth again, the radiant white fangs even sharper than before. Her canines had grown so long that they protruded from her mouth, digging into her lower lip sharply enough to almost draw blood.

"Raven!" Robin screamed, breaking the spell cast over Raven, one hand outstretched. Raven gasped and her eyes returned to their regular violet-blue color, her teeth shrinking back to normal size. She looked down and her already chalky-white face paled as she saw what she had become. Shame was written on her face in bold letters as she grew smaller---and smaller---back to her average stature. Her eyes were wide with----fear? Was she finally afraid?---and she began to breath heavily through her mouth, swaying slightly on her feet. Then, once the Titans came running over, she went back to being the closed apathetic person she always had been, or pretended to be. Dr. Light was on the floor, shuddering in a fettle position, his uniform completely chewed off by something. His face was utterly white, and his eyes had a glassy look, as if he still wasn't really seeing anything. "It's okay," Robin said, resting a hand on Dr. Light's arm, and Starfire went after him, placing a worried expression on her face as she kneeled next to the traumatized criminal. "You're going to be alright."

Dr. Light went on as if he hadn't heard him. "It was so...s-so dark," he stuttered through chattering teeth. "M-Make it stop! Make it stop!"

"Dude, Raven, what did you do?" Beast Boy inquired, holding out his hands. He stepped closer to him, but he still felt paranoid, unsure if Raven was stable or not. She had just proven that she was creepy to the extreme. He wouldn't want her lashing out on him next. Why would Raven do something like this? They were supposed to apprehend and arrest Dr. Light---not scare the living hell out of him! She had completely and utterly horrified all of the Titans, and Beast Boy knew that something had to be wrong. What would cause her to...to...What had really just happened?! Beast Boy screamed mentally, over and over. Did Raven really just grow to the size of the building and drag Dr. Light into a realm of evil and fear? Had tentacles really just sprouted out from under her cloak, attacking the villain until he had started to bawl like a five year old? Or had he just imagined it all? He got his answer when Raven turned violently around and hissed at him, teeth sharp once more, eyes again red. He could literally feel the evil radiate off of her being, smothering him. Beast Boy screamed and jumped backwards, flapping his arms as he tried to retain his balance. Once it was regained, he lifted one leg up and his hands fluttered up to protect his face, eyes shut tightly. When he didn't feel himself being tossed under his hooded friend---or so she proclaimed. Beast Boy honestly wasn't sure right now. After all the times he had denied her of being truly evil, his opinion wavered after what he had just witnessed---he cracked open one eye carefully.

Her eyes were still violet-blue, her teeth still perfect squares in her small mouth. Beast Boy backed up a few paces, scared to the point of...oh, he didn't think he could be scared any more in his life than right now. Raven's face became frozen and she hurried away from her teammates, head down, and evaporated into an alley. She had probably phased back to the tower, running away before she could explain what had happened. "What's her deal?" Beast Boy wondered aloud, eyes wide. Cyborg, who stood next to him after he had miraculously broken free from the melted metal, rubbed the back of his head. He doubted anyone actually knew what had just taken place.

After the Titans had soother Dr. Light enough to walk him off to jail---"Please!" He had begged, "keep me safe from that monster!"---the teenagers had returned home in silence. No one dared to speak, for they were all still afraid. Afraid of what, Beast Boy wasn't sure. The dark? That evil feeling that had gone through everyone's body before? The fear of what Dr. Light had gone through?

Were they afraid of Raven?

Beast Boy never thought he would be able to become afraid of Raven. He had always believed that even if his instincts forced him to fear her, he would never be _terrified_ of her in a conscious way. He had always thought that she would be annoying to him, and vice versa. He had thought that she wasn't such a bad person if you got over the whole "gloom-and-doom" routine. But what if he was wrong? He pondered as he walked to his room quietly.

What if Raven really wasn't able to fight the ever-present "darkness" that had leaked out during battle? He wondered as he brushed his teeth.

What if she wasn't as pure and easily-figured-out as he had thought? He questioned as he changed into a pair of pajama pants. Beast Boy shuddered as he slipped into bed.

What if she wasn't good at all?

---

"Rise and shine, amigos!" Beast Boy said cheerfully the next morning, standing in the kitchen over a pan-full of eggs and sporting a chef hat. Hey, he enjoyed playing the part. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping---it was as if the entire universe had forgotten what had transpired last night. "Breakfast is severed," he declared, blowing the steam of the piping-hot eggs. He placed the pan down gently in the middle of the kitchen table, bringing his hands to his mouth and kissing them, before opening his hand and saying, "Magnificent!" in an Italian accent.

"Thanks, Beast Boy. Everything looked great," Robin said honestly, a cup in hand. He smiled and licked his lips at the sight of food.

"On my planet, such a feast would mark the arrangement of a marriage," Starfire quipped, a good-natured tone in her voice. Robin gave her a questioning look, but she went on, oblivious. "Tell me, Beast Boy, to whom are you engaged?"

"Who else but Raven?" Robin mumbled into his cup as he took a deep sip, covering his smirk. Beast Boy narrowed his eyes and scowled, whipping the chef hat off of his head. "Shut up," he frowned, humiliatingly aware that his face felt hot. The color faded from his cheeks as he watched Cyborg scarf down his plate of eggs---

---and spit them right out. "That's not eggs!" he whined, pointing to his plate. "That's that tofu stuff!" Well, at least he had gotten Cyborg to try it, underhanded or not. Cyborg, disgusted he had actually eaten something healthy for once, grimaced and attempted to wash the taste of tofu out his mouth, swallowing his cup full of milk---

---and spitting it right out. "That's not even real milk!" He exclaimed, sloshing the remainder of his soy milk around in the cup. Beast Boy crossed his arms, offended. Soy milk was much better than that stupid whole milk, that farmers made after torturing those poor cows. Beast Boy heard the swish of the doors open and heard the soft patter of footsteps as someone walked in. He knew it was Raven, and not just because she was the only one missing, by the scent. He had learned that each of the Titans had a specific scent. Cyborg smelt of motor oil and metals; Starfire stank of flowers(lilac and daffodils); Robin reeked of latex and spandex; and Raven had an aura of lavender and, of course, jasmine tea.

God only knew what Beast Boy smelled like.

Beast Boy's angry expression softened without him even knowing when he watched her walk from the corner of his eyes, and he missed the smile Cyborg snuck behind his hand. She seemed to be fine; heart rate normal, breathing pattern calm, no scent of obvious fear. Perhaps she had gone back to normal. "Hey, Raven," Robin said warily, a smile still pasted on his face. "Want breakfast?"

Beast Boy decided that he might as well try to cheer her up is the team wanted to ignore the situation last night. Besides, she could always use a smile---it wouldn't kill her to even pretend to like him. He wished she knew how hard he really tried. "It's good~" Beast Boy sang, waving a plate of tofu eggs behind her head. She ignored his attempts, pouring a pot of tea into her cup. "Wakey wakey, tofu eggs and _bakey_!"

"Herbal, tea."

"C'mon, just one little taste," Beast Boy prodded, knowing he shouldn't. But he had never managed to go to far with Raven; he always managed to find out what buttons to push. Her heart beat started to grow faster and faster, her breathing coming short, but he continued on. "You could use a little food after the way you cooked Dr. Light----"

Crap.

He went to far.

"NO!" Raven screamed as she whipped around to face him, eyes red, expression fierce. Beast Boy's heart stopped beating for a full five seconds and he gasped, stomach sunken with fear. God, was she going to snap again? Was she going to hurt him? He really didn't know anymore! As he thought those things in less than a second, the questions whizzing through his mind, Raven looked even angrier. As if she had heard him. Then the plate in his hands was covered in black energy and the eggs exploded into a seemingly endless torrent of tofu breakfast goods. Beast Boy made a funny noise of both surprise and fear as he dropped the plate with a clang, eggs clinging to his face and hair. Raven's eyes faded back to violet-blue---with gold flecks, Beast Boy added for some reason---and she thundered out without another word.

_Fucking Freak._

Beast Boy scowled after her, eyes hard. He willed his glare to burn a hole through her back, to set her on fire, to do something painful. He was just so angry!!

"Maybe you should go apologize to her," Robin suggested, sliding in next to Beast Boy. The changeling stared at him, exasperated. Didn't anyone understand him?

"Me?!" Beast Boy screeched. "I'm not the one who turned breakfast into a battlefield!" Cyborg's chair scraped against the floor as he got up to clean the table.

"Yeah," Cyborg said slowly as he passed with an armful of dirty, tofu-soaked dishes. "But after all the weirdness that went down last night, you should have known better than to bother with her."

Beast Boy wanted to scoff at him. He wanted to look him in the eye and say that while they knew so little about Raven, no one knew her better than he did. He was the one who got on her nerves constantly, he was the one who knew how to annoy her, he was the one who could figure out more about her than anyone else. It was as if he had made it his life-long mission to open her up. And he was the only one who bothered with her! Everyone else treated her like she was some kind of fucking disease! God, he was so mad at that! She was weird, yes, but no one even tried talking to her, no one tried to bring her out of her shell. If he didn't talk to her, no one ver would! Even if he was constantly annoying her, at least he made an effort at making her feel welcome!

So, he definitely didn't need Cyborg giving him advice on how to deal with Raven. That was like Beast Boy telling Cyborg how he should program himself! But instead, Beast Boy replied with a meager, "I was trying to be nice! But no matter how hard I try, she still treats me like tofu eggs! You know she's never laughed once at any of my jokes!" He told them, his voice scratching.

"'Least she listens," Cyborg mumbled as he cleaned the dishes, "I just kind'a tune you out." Beast Boy glared at his friend and flushed. What, was he saying that Raven listened to him more than any of them did? That was...that was ridiculous! Raven hated him.

Didn't she?

"Raven is...complicated," Starfire explained, searching for the right word that might begin to describe Raven. First Cyborg trying to explain Raven to him, now Starfire? Ugh! "There is much about her that we are not meant to understand."

"Then how are we supposed to deal with her?" Beast Boy asked, asking the question that everyone besides him wanted to explain. If they were such Raven-experts, then fine. "How can we even trust her? I mean---"

"She's out friend; what more do we need to know?" Robin asked. Beast Boy's face crumpled. Nothing else, Beast Boy wanted to say. We don't need to know anything else because Raven really is good. Beast Boy truly wanted to believe that, to believe that Raven was the hero he wanted her to be. But he really wasn't sure anymore. But that didn't mean he couldn't try, right?

"Okay, alright, fine!" Beast Boy surrendered, throwing his hands up. "I'll apologize!"

"'Att'a boy!" Robin laughed, punching Beast Boy's arm playfully. Beast Boy sighed and slunk away to the hallway. What was he going to say to her?_ Sorry I tried to make you feel more comfortable around us? Sorry I offered you breakfast and you blew it up in my face? Sorry you're always so mean to me even though I'm always trying to be nice?_ How do you apologize to someone who didn't even want you near them?

When Beast Boy broke away from his train of thought, he was already standing in front of Raven's room. The cold metal door read RAVEN in capital letters, nothing more, nothing less. He stood there, rooted to the spot, paralyzed with fear. His mind drew a blank and he completely forgot why he was standing here except that he didn't want to _at all_. Finally he built up enough courage to knock. He leaned away from the door and knocked lightly once, squeezing his eyes shut.

No answer.

"Oh well, nobody's home," Beast Boy smiled, relieved that he had at least tried to get in contact with her. He turned and started to walk away, whistling a happy tune, before slamming right smack into the chest of Cyborg. The impact made a hollow thud and Beast Boy covered his nose, which was beginning to throb after exploding with pain. "Ow.." Cyborg raised an eyebrow at him.

"You might want to knock a little louder," he said, forcing Beast Boy to turn around and shoving him towards the door like he was a little kid who didn't want to go to his first day of school. Beast Boy moaned, starting to feel light-headed. He couldn't do this! He had never been in Raven's room before! He could remember when he brought her the chicken from the carnival so long ago, but he hadn't actually _entered_ the room; he had hung outside her window and chucked it blindly on the bed---at least it had landed facing forward. But now he was going to have to go into Raven's room through the door.

With Raven in it.

Cyborg rapped his knuckles loudly on the door, each knock causing Beast Boy to flinch. He didn't have to knock so _loudly!_ When no one answered, Beast Boy allowed himself to think that maybe Raven just wouldn't answer. Yeah, that could happen, right? She could just not be in! Beast Boy began to relax, his shoulders losing their tension. He felt confident and ready for anything now that the possibility of her not being there had entered his brain.

And then the door fell off of it's hinges---well, he hadn't been ready for that. Cyborg froze in mid-knock while Beast Boy stared into the darkness of her room with eyes so wide they seemed like green islands surrounded by twin seas of white.

Did he just...?

"Now we both have to apologize," Beast Boy muttered. His curiosity became to overpowering, and Beast Boy peered inside to get a better look. This was the mysterious Raven's room, after all. He wanted to know what was so interesting in here that she always had to haul away in here. On one wall was an oddly shaped book case stuffed with thick gazillion-page books. There were depressing statues stuck to the wall, as well as an old mirror. Below that was a wooden dresser, which looked to be hand-carved with brass knobs. On the wall opposite the door was her bed, which was circle-shaped with a tan-sheet thrown over it. Pillows littered the surface. On the last wall was a locked trunk, also made of wood, a shelf piled with freaky magic-mojo stuff, and strange decorations hanging from the ceiling.

Cyborg leaned in through the now empty doorway and called softly, "Uh, Raven? Sorry about the door...Raven?" Beast Boy was walking in the room before he even realized what he was doing. But he needed to know what it was like in here. This room was taboo, off limits, uncharted territory. That's why he had to be in here!

"Dude, she's not here, c'mon." He stood in the middle of the room and looked around, taking in all of the scenery. It creeped him out---this room fit Raven perfectly. Cyborg stood in the hallway awkwardly before sighing and tip-toeing after him, acting as if Raven was hiding in the shadows. Beast Boy found himself staring into the eyes of her scary two-faced statue; one crying, one laughing. "Looks like Halloween came early this year..."

"We're in Raven's room!" Cyborg whispered, deeply upset. He was reeking of fear as he steeped carefully over to the green boy. "We should not be in Raven's room! She doesn't let anyone in here. _Ever!_"

"This is our big chance to find out more about her," Beast Boy said casually, walking over to her dresser. The wood was glassy and shiny. a beautiful mahogany. On the surface was a hand-held mirror with actual rubies dotted around the strangely-shaped frame. "For instance," Beast Boy giggled, picking up the mirror. His own charming face stared back at him and he flashed his very own, self-proclaimed lady-killing smile. Stupid tooth was still sticking out though. He always knew Raven wasn't completely different from average girls; she had a hand-held mirror that she checked her appearance in. She was just as obsessed with vanity as any other girl. "Check out this beauty mirror; who'd have thought Raven spends her time sprucing!" He raised his voice an octave in a falsetto and batted his eyelashes. "Ohmigosh, is that a zit?"

Ha, he thought he sounded pretty convincing!

A face in the mirror appeared that wasn't his. A face with four red glowing eyes. Beast Boy gasped and dropped the mirror to the floor before screaming loudly. He didn't care if Raven heard him now. Or maybe, this was some kind of booby-trap she had set. Or she had done this purposely to him for getting on her nerves. Or even a practical joke she was playing---although he doubted that. A giant arm came from the mirror, made completely from red energy that secreted evil. Beast Boy screamed shrilly, not caring that he sounded like a little girl. Fear nailed him to the ground and he couldn't find the will to run. His mind and instincts were screaming that he escape, but the message from his brain wouldn't connect from his spinal cord down to his legs. The hand closed around him, covering his mouth, and shook him. "C'mon, B, we should really get---" Cyborg began, turning around after he had looked down the hall for the umpteenth time. He saw the red arm grabbing at Beast Boy and his jaw dropped. "Huh? Yo!"

Beast Boy felt the cold, metallic feeling of Cyborg's hand around his ankle as he tried to pull him free, but the hand was too strong, and in a puff of smoke, it hand yanked them through the mirror.

---

Beast Boy was spinning.

He was spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning.

He was spinning through a vortex of some sort, twirling so much that he didn't know what was up and what was down. He could hear Cyborg screaming above, or below him, or next to him. He was vaguely aware that he was screaming as well. His arms and legs were spread out, and he shut his eyes.

He was spinning and spinning and spinning.

---

After an eternity of the nauseating whirlwind of a ride, Beast Boy and Cyborg were spit out onto the hard rocky ground of...somewhere. Beast Boy rubbed his head and looked up in time to see the vortex shrink out of existence. "Oh man..." Cyborg muttered, looking around. Beast Boy looked as well, and a frown formed on his face, eyebrows bunching together. They were floating on a rock in the middle of nowhere. After a gap of nothing, other platforms of rocks were visable, although there was no sign of life on any. Trees with brittle, old branches hung in random places dejectedly without leaves, as if even a place such as this could not stand the sight of them. The sky was dark and dotted with stars that were not white, but red, the same color as Raven's eyes when she snapped. They were totally alone, and it was freaking Beast Boy out.

"I told you we shouldn't have gone in her room!" Beast Boy shouted, knowing perfectly well that he was the one who had encouraged Cyborg to follow him in once he was sure Raven was not there. Cyborg ignored him and pressed a collection of random buttons on his arm, trying to check their coordinates. "Uh..." Beast Boy said, fear sinking in, "where are we?" Cyborg clicked buttons furiously, but nothing seemed to ease his frayed nerves.

"You're asking the wrong robot," Cyborg told him as Beast Boy circled the rock continuously. "My sensors must be on the blink, because they're sayin' we're in Titans Tower." Beast Boy rolled his eyes. Yeah, this was toooootally Titans Tower.

"Right...So, how do we get back?" Beast Boy wondered out loud. Cyborg gave up trying to figure out their location and lowered his arm.

"Guess we start walkin'." Beast Boy gawked at him. He had to be kidding, right? Walk around in this God forsaken place?! Why not just swim in a tub full of alligators while they were at it? Deep-sea dive with a bunch of man-eating Great Whites?

"C'mon! I'm serious, we're on a rock in the middle of---" Just as he spoke, islands of small rock platforms came together to form a land bridge that seemed stable enough to walk on. Beast Boy stared at the magic pieces of rock. Would anything about Raven and her freakiness cease to creep him out? "Oh." The two friends started to walk, having no other choice but to march onwards, and Beast Boy scowled. "If sending us to Weirdsville is Raven's idea of a joke, I am so not laughing."

"Hey, she didn't send us here," Cyborg defended. "You were the one snooping in her room and poppin' zits in her magic mirror!"

"Who booby-traps a mirror?" Beast Boy countered.

"Maybe it wasn't a trap," Cyborg answered. "Maybe it's Raven's way home..." Cyborg trailed off, looking around---not like there was much to see, Beast Boy thought. "Maybe this is where she's from."Beast Boy shrugged. Scary, abandoned meteor-like world? Yeah, she could come from here. "Definitely creepy enough," Beast Boy muttered.

"_Turn back_."

The voice came from nowhere, child-like, in the form of a whisper. Beast Boy and Cyborg jumped, covering each other's blind spots and slowly revolving in a circle to see where the voice had come from. "Like I was saying," Beast Boy added shakily.

"_Turn back._"

"_Turn back._"

"_Turn back_."

The voices echoed from everywhere, but still Beast Boy could not find the source. Then Cyborg elbowed him and pointed to a gnarled, old tree. Perched on one of the crippled branches were several black-feathered, red-eyed ravens. Each one echoed the others calls. "Sweet!" Beast Boy smiled. "Bet'cha they can tell us how to get home."

"Careful," Cyborg warned as the changeling waltzed closer to the tree. "How do we know they're not a threat?" Beast Boy scoffed. Puh-lease. He was the master of all animals, the king of the jungle. Even if they were no kind of ravens he had ever seen or transformed into, they were still a form of animal. And he was a pro at handling animals. "Hello? Remember me?" Beast Boy took an animal-like stance before rolling his eyes with a smile. "_Beast_ Boy? If they were dangerous, I'd know." Cyborg gave him an unbelieving look, arms crossed. Beast Boy ignored him and inched closer to the birds. They looked cute, just like Raven back home.

His mind froze for a second, keeping the smile pasted onto his face.

_A_ raven, he meant to think.

Just like _a_ raven back home. "Hey, little guys. My friend and I were wondering---" Beast Boy turned to the tree only to see that the ravens were no longer on the branch. They were hopping around his feet, continuing their cries to turn back and return to where they came. And they had multiplied. After a second of regrouping, the ravens roared and their beaks transformed into vicious, sharp-toothed monstrosities. Their wide, red eyes divided into four slit ones. The birds rocketed towards him as a flock, cawing loudly. Beast Boy gasped and ran back, running straight through Cyborg in his haste. Cyborg fell on his back and curled into a ball while Beast Boy skidded down the rock path on his back.

Okay, so he'd been wrong before.

Thinking fast, Beast Boy morphed into a hippopotamus, opening his mouth wide. A few ravens flew into his mouth, and he clamped his jaws shut. Then a sharp pain came from his tongue and he immediately spit the birds out; those bratty birds just tried to bite his tongue off!! "GAH!" Cyborg wailed, flapping his arms wildly as birds swarmed around him. "Get 'em off me, get 'em off me!" He fled in the opposite direction, towards Beast Boy. The ravens followed. "Cut it out!" Beast Boy morphed into an ostrich and ran away from Cyborg, seeing as he was leading the killer-birds towards him. Cyborg followed and shouted, "Hey!" at the ravens that had started to peck at him. Beast Boy changed into a llama then, to gain higher ground, and Cyborg jumped on his back. Beast Boy made a sound of protest---he was so heavy!---but charged at the ravens anyway. Cyborg's arm transformed into his sonic cannon and he began firing angrily at the birds, who cawed in response. He shot at the birds, following them as they flew in circles to avoid being obliterated. One raven flew between Beast Boys legs and Cyborg let out a fierce cry and let loose the most powerful of all his cannon blasts yet.

The ground beneath them started to crumble, and that's when Beast Boy remembered: They were floating on a platform, a platform which Cyborg had just destroyed. Beast Boy collapsed as the ground fell away, and he shut his eyes, sad that he was going to die as such a handsome, young llama. Cyborg grabbed the fur on his neck and held on tightly to the remainder of the asteroid with the other hand. He groaned at the effort, his arms shaking as he concentrated on not dropping his green friend and dropping to his death.

"Hey guys," a cheerful voice said from above. Beast Boy was unable to look up to see who it was because Cyborg had immobilized his neck, but the voice sounded familiar, although he was sure he'd never heard that specific tone. "What's up?"

"I don't know anymore," Cyborg said emotively. And then it felt like the entire world had been twisted and turned upside-down, because Beast Boy was falling again, but this time in the opposite direction. He whined in surprise and landed on top of Cyborg before changing back into human form. The same cheerful voice giggled and Beast Boy cracked open one eye. A pale girl stood next to them, hand over her mouth in a failed attempt to conceal a wide smile that stretched across her entire face. Her hood was up, covering most of her face, but Beast Boy could still see that she was laughing. She wore a pink cloak that was thrown back to reveal an also pink leotard. Wait…was that…

_Raven_?!

As unbelievable as it was, it was her. "Cy! BB! How's it been?" She asked happily, throwing her arms around them both and locking them in a bone-crushing bear hug. Beast Boy tired to inhale and ignored the fact that she was making him feel…weird. Since when did Raven hug people? Beast Boy finally managed to break away from the hug and panted, trying to regain lost oxygen.

"Raven? How are---what just---where are---" Beast Boy stopped when his thoughts caught up to him. What was she doing here? What was she doing her laughing? "Why are you wearing pink?" If memory served him correctly, didn't Raven hate anything to do with the color pink? Raven continued to giggle.

"'Cause…it's my favorite color?" She prompted.

"It is?" Beast Boy asked, amazed. Maybe he could get some more answers out of her. Did she like him, or did she really just hate him, as she was always saying she did? Where was she from? What had happened last night? Why had she blown up his eggs? Did she know what her eyes did to him? Wow, you think you know someone as a creepy Goth, and it turns out their a spastic valley girl. Huh.

"Uh, I'd love to talk fashion but I don't suppose you know how to get home," Cyborg interjected before Beast Boy could ask anymore questions.

"The Forbidden Door," She said pleasantly, pointing to an arch made of stone just a few yards from them. "It's the only way out. But you don't want to go there, not now."

Beast Boy and Cyborg shared a look before chanting in unison, "Uh, yeah we do."

"'Kay," Raven smiled, turning around to lead them and waggling a finger, "but don't say I didn't warn you!" Both Beast Boy and Cyborg watched in wonder as she lifted both arms straight up on either side of her body, turning to each side and making airplane noises as she pretended to fly through the arch.

"Have you ever seen Raven this happy?" Cyborg whispered as they followed her through the arch. Beast Boy shrugged.

"I didn't even know Raven could _do_ happy." The ach shivered and Beast Boy dropped his jaw. The sky was a cheery, bright yellow with cotton-candy clouds. The grass beneath their feet was pink, matching the mountains and trees in the background.

A breeze rustled the yellow leaves on the floor and Cyborg asked, "Now where are we?" A strawberry---Seriously? Beast Boy thought as he watched it pass, a strawberry?---floated by their heads.

"I think this is where air fresheners come from," Beast Boy said seriously. A joyous, musical sound filled the air, and it took him a few seconds to realize that it was the sound of Raven laughing.

"Good one!" she complimented between giggles. Beast Boy decided that he absolutely loved the sound of her laughter, and the smile on her face which looked so natural now. He was reminded why he always tried to make her laugh Even if he couldn't see her face, he knew she must be beautiful with the smile reaching her eyes. Shit, Beast Boy thought, don't think about her eyes.

"You're…laughing?" Cyborg asked incredulously.

"At one of my jokes?" Beast Boy added, secretly happy. He had always hoped this would happen, and miraculously, it had!

"Sure," Raven grinned, "I've always thought you were funny, BB. But hey---looks aren't everything!" Raven covered her eyes and laughed out loud at her own joke, continuing down the pink path. Beast Boy looked at Cyborg, and Cyborg looked back. They were both wondering what had drastically changed their normally gloomy friend. The started after the pink-clad empath and tried to figure out what could have changed her.

_She thinks I'm funny! _Beast Boy thought to himself, thrilled. _She actually thinks I'm funny! I knew she couldn't resist me! I knew she had to like me!_

"Of course I like you, BB!" Raven laughed behind her shoulder. "I love you, ya little grass stain!" Beast Boy choked on his own saliva and forgot to swallow, stopping where he stood.

_Love...? _His face caught fire upon hearing Raven direct that word, love, of all words, towards him and his eyes darted from Raven's pink back to Cyborg. His robotic friend was masking a chuckle as Beast Boy grew hotter and hotter. This wasn't happening, this wasn't happening, the was _not_ happening; he was not walking through Happy Valley with his best friend while the girl that alegedly hated him professed her love for him. Raven seemed not to notice his discomfort, and added, "I love all the Titans; 'specially Star, She's my kinda' gal!"

Beast Boy swallowed and trotted after Cyborg, too embarrassed to look him in the eyes. He would never let him live that down! Then something dawned on Beast Boy. "How did you know what I was thinking?" He questioned.

"Oh, that," Raven said breezily. "When I'm in my own realm, I can hear everyone of your thoughts." She cocked her pink head to the side. "Like how Cy's thinking how funny it was when you turned absolutely red a few seconds ago. And how he thinks you have a thing for me. And how you thought when I said love, you thought I meant it in a romantic way. And how now you're thinking it's annoying that I keep "guessing" what you're thinking. And how now that you realize I really can hear you, you're starting to freak out. And how now you're trying not to think about thinking about someone's eyes because you---"

"Stop doing that!" Beast Boy blurted, and Raven laughed. She skipped onward, leaving Beast Boy to glare at Cyborg. "You think I have a thing for her?" He whispered furiously. Cyborg sighed.

"It's obvious, man. I mean, you're the only one who bothers with her." Beast Boy snorted.

"I do it because no one else wants to treat her like a person! I'm the only one who talks to her, and she still hates me!"

"Not according to the New Raven, she doesn't," Cyborg pointed out. Beast Boy scowled and skulked the rest of the walk, deep in thought that he had forgotten Raven was listening to.

How could he have a thing for Raven? Like, seriously? He was Beast Boy, the happy-go-lucky jokester of the Titans. He was funny, nice, and goofy; and Raven wasn't---well, not until now. They were polar opposites. He was hot, she was sub-zero, yata yata yata. The universe made it impossible for him to love someone like that. The only thing he could ever say he loved about Raven---if it was anything at all---were her eyes. Right now, under this strange yellow sky, her ever-changing eyes looked purple with…magenta flecks? That couldn't be right! Her irises changed a lot, but they always had the same gold spots! Well, maybe he had been mistaken. After all, every time he looked at them, he'd spazz; it was possible that he had thought they were a different color in-between all the feelings he entertained when he was staring into her irises, drinking her in, and watching as she looked through his…his soul, he guessed.

"That's so sweet, BB!" Raven squealed. "I never knew you had it in you to think something like that!" All the color in Beast Boys face drained before returning with a vengeance. Cyborg raised an eyebrow but he ignored him.

"Don't do, that Raven!" he whined angrily. But she wasn't there anymore. "Raven?"

No answer.

"She ditched us!" he screeched dubiously. "I can't believe she ditched us! When I get my hands on her---Cy?"

He whirled around to look up at his seven-foot-something, half-robot best friend, only to find no one next to him. "Argh!" Beast Boy threw his arms over his head and stomped on the ground, crushing a flower that had sprouted up next to him. What was wrong with this place? Killer ravens, a giggling Goth girl that couldn't stop reading his mind, and a disappearing best friend? Ugh, he hated it here! You couldn't find anything! He didn't even know where that stupid "Forbidden Door" was! What if he was stuck here, forever? What if he was trapped here and no one was ever going to find him! It's not like anybody could find him here, wherever here was! He would starve! He would die of thirst! He would die of boredom, for all he knew! That settled it for Beast Boy; he was going to die here, in this creepy, happy enchanted forest. He was going to die here all alone.

"What's wrong with being alone? At least you'll have me," someone called in a calm voice. Beast Boy yelped in surprise, accustomed to the silence of his own thoughts and death warrant, before jumping two feet in the air. The person chuckled lightly and Beast Boy heard footsteps in the grass. "I didn't think I scared you that badly, Garfield."

Beast Boy twirled around now. "How do you know my---what the Hell?"

It was Raven that was walking towards him, but now dressed in purple attire. And from beneath her hood, he could swear she was hiding a smile. What was up with all of the outfit changes lately? And, even more concerning that her varying sense of style, how did she know his real name? He didn't think he'd told anyone in Titans Tower, or had been called that out loud. He hadn't been referred to as Garfield since…well, since he had been kicked off the Doom Patrol. "Raven, what's---"

"Call me Rae," she intercepted. Beast Boy quirked an eyebrow and she sighed, lowering her hood to reveal the rest of her face. Beast Boy sucked in a lungful of air as he took in all of her features. It seemed that he hadn't seen her face years. A perfectly straight nose, silky purple hair that limply hung around her chin, full lips that gave her a pouting look, and her enchanted eyes that rearranged his insides like a suburban mom fixing the furniture on a Saturday.

"I said," she repeated, walking closer to him. She was only a few feet away now. "You can call me Rae." Beast Boy swallowed audibly, earning a smile from Raven at his awkwardness. She was only a foot away from him now, and she wouldn't stop there.

"Uh, um, R-Rae then." _Don't stutter, you idiot! _He berated himself mentally. _Stop acting so stupid around her!_ "I, uh, I wanted to know h-how you know my name," he said as she stepped closer. She was only a few inches away from him now. He could hear her heart beat regularly while his own heart fumbled clumsily to keep from stopping. Raven blinked at him.

"I know a lot about you, Garfield." Beast Boy tugged on his collar, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the spacing between the two. Then only times they had been this close was during battle, but that was when he would either catch her or keep her from getting blasted by some missile. It wasn't like they had any kind of…relationship, or whatever. "C-Can you hear what I'm thinking again?" He gulped.

Raven smiled again at him, shaking her head and closing the distance between them. Her hands were on his chest, and he was sure she could feel his rapid heart try to break through his rib cage. This would have been so much easier for him if she was just as freaked out as he was! "I wish I could. But, now, I can't hear you right now."

"But you told us before that when you were in your realm , you could---"

"That wasn't me," she said seriously.

"Huh?" Beast Boy asked. "How can you not be yourself?"

"I mean…" She sighed and sat down on the grass, tottering a bit on her behind before sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest. Beast Boy carefully sat next to her. "Neither of the two girls you've seen since you've gotten to this place is the Real Raven." Beast Boy scratched her head and she continued on explaining. "The mirror you found is used for meditation. Raven uses it to keep her emotions in check to prevent anything from happening, like last night. You aren't in Raven's home dimension; you're in her mind." She watched as Beast Boy absorbed all of the information and as his face changed.

"I'm in Raven's head?" He cried. "She's going to kill me!" He groaned, falling onto his back and covering his eyes with his arm. She didn't even want him in her room---imagine how angry she'd be if she found out that he was running a muck inside her skull! As he frowned over what Raven was going to do to him---most likely dismember him---her felt the Other Raven run his calf soothingly. Instead of feeling his skin burn, as he expected it would feel like if Raven ever touched him in any way, he felt utterly relaxed. All tension left his body at her touch, as if she had pressed the "drain" button on his mind. Against his will, he started to purr.

As long as no one was here to see him act like this he might as well…

Wow, she was making him feel incredibly light-headed---but in a good way. His breathing started to grow shallow and for a second he felt as if he was drunk. But that was ridiculous. "So who are you and Pink Raven?" he asked, lifting his arm to look at her. He was taking this so much better than he normally would. She was barely concentrating on rubbing his leg, instead gazing at him with such a strong---was there a word for the content that she didn't bother to hide? Beast Boy didn't think so.

"We are Raven's emotions personified. It makes it easier for her to control us when she can speak with the emotion she's having trouble with. The emotion you and Cyborg met before was named Happy." Beast Boy chuckled.

"Figures." He returned to sitting position and the Other Raven stopped rubbing his leg. "Which one are you?"

She grinned wickedly. "I think I'll keep that a secret."

"Aw, c'mon!" Beast Boy pleaded, making his eyes as large as possible and sticking out his lower lip. Other Raven laughed at him and looked away nervously.

"Don't tease me like that," she said, "I won't be able to control myself around you if you inist on doing that." He smirked. Ah-ha, so she couldn't resist his charms, huh?

"Puh-leeeeeeeeeeease, Rae!" he begged, clasping his hands together. Other Raven looked at him and bit her lip, deciding on something. Then she leant over to him and whispered, "How 'bout I let you guess."

"Fine," Beast Boy agreed, nodding his head.

"Raven truly appreciates all the effort you put into trying to make her feel welcome. Really, she does!" She added earnestly when Beast Boy snorted, drawing imaginary circles on his arm with her fingers. "Just don't tell her I told you that. Raven doesn't like people knowing that she cares about them."

"I still have no idea who you are," Beast Boy said playfully, and Other Raven slowly lifted a hand before tracing the outline of his mouth with her index finger. Her skin was as white and cool as marble. Her touch sent a shock wave of emotions through Beast Boy and he froze like a statue, unsure of what to do."Any guesses?" Other Raven asked in a sultry voice. Beast Boy's mind couldn't have been more muddled.

"Uhh…" It took him energy just to remember what his name was. "Not yet." Other Raven smiled and bent her head closer to his ear. In this position, Beast Boy was sitting with his legs crossed, arms supporting his weight as he leaned on them; Other Raven was on her knees, her hands on his shoulders. Her torso was touching his, her breasts on his chest, separated only by a thin layer of spandex--- God, they shouldn't be doing this. He shouldn't be here, and he shouldn't have a girl that looked like Raven lying on top of him. If they kept at it like this, he was going to have an erection, and he didn't want that to happen in the middle of Raven's brain. But with her lips on his ear, her breath seeming to clear out his mind, her jasmine-scented hair falling directly in his face, it was hard to tell her to flip off.

"I have never wanted anyone more than you right now, Garfield," Other Raven breathed, and Beast Boy's mind erased any memory of who he was or what was going on. "We were destined to be together." Her mouth was so close that he could feel the smile on her lips. Slowly, in a way that tortured Beast Boy, she brought her face to his. She stared into his eyes, her violet orbs searching in his, and his breathing hitched. Tingling sensations went down his arms and legs, reaching his chest and tickling his ribs. His head felt so light that he was sure it would float away, had his neck not have it connected to his body. She wasn't the Real Raven, but she was a part of her, and she was her image exactly. The only difference was the lavender specks in her eyes, almost nonexistent as they blended in with her irises.

Beast Boy was drowning. He knew that now. He was drowning, gasping for air, panting as he tried to salvage as much oxygen as possible before surrendering to the current. He was drowning in her perfectly violet eyes without even a life preserver to save him. He was drowning and he was never happier that he couldn't remember how to swim.

"Do you want me?" Other Raven asked him softly, kissing his forehead. "Do you want me as badly as I want you?" Her tender kisses went to his temple, and the spot where his skin and her lips connected sent a shiver down his entire body.

"Do you want to touch me? The same way I want to touch you?"

The kisses ran down to his cheekbone.

"Do you want to hold me? The same way I want to hold you?"

Now the kisses were on his jaw.

"Do you want to keep me with you? The same way I never want to let you go?"

The kisses went to his throat.

"Do you love me, Garfield? Do you love me as painfully as I love you?"

She ended at the hollow of his throat, and he moaned. He really loved the way that she said his name. As she kissed him, making him shudder, he had an answer to all of her questions. Yes, he wanted her, he thought as he ran a hand through her hair. Yes, he wanted to touch her, he thought as she rubbed his back and the light-headed-drunken-feeling was brought back again. Yes, he wanted to hold her, he thought as she tugged on the collar of his uniform. Yes, he wanted to keep her with him, he thought as she opened her mouth and began to suck on his neck and he gasped in pleasure. Yes, he thought as she gave him the best hickey of his life, he loved her. He loved her, he loved her, he loved her, he loved her. She gave him an endlessly wonderful feeling of ecstasy in a way that made him want to explode. He loved her so badly that it hurt.

"I---I---I---" He tried putting his thoughts into words but found he just couldn't do it. He was a friggin' stuttering mess.

"What is it, Garfield?" Other Raven muttered into his throat, and Beast Boy felt her voice vibrate throughout his neck.

"I---I---"

"AFFECTION!" Beast Boy was broken from the spell the affectionate Raven had cast on him and gasped, falling backwards. The voice, monotone and devoid of all feelings, belonged to none other the Real Raven. Beast Boy looked up helplessly at her, and found that she was not only standing with a glare and her arms crossed, but had found Cyborg from wherever he had gone to, and the metal teen was now staring at him with one wide eye. Beast Boy guiltily looked away. He was caught---thank God they hadn't found him after he had lost control of himself and just...had her. That would have been the icing on the humiliation cake (made with soy milk and non-fertilized eggs, of course!)

"Let me have my fun," Affection pouted, adjusting her position so that she was pinning Beast Boy to the floor. Beast Boy, aware that his shirt was unzipped and he was being man-handled by a girl that looked like Raven in front of his two friends, turned redder than he ever thought possible. He could have made a tomato look pale. "It's not like anyone ever comes to drop by," Affection sighed, playing with a strand of hair.

"So help me Azar---step away from the shirtless green boy now!" Raven roared. Angry would have been an understatement if he had wanted to describe the expression on her face. She looked utterly outraged

"You ruin everything!" Affection cried, but nonetheless stepped off of Beast Boy before Raven could strangle anything. "I can't do anything around here!" she whined, crossing her arms and pouting like a little kid. Beast Boy took the opportunity to jump up and fumbled to re-zip his shirt. The entire affair with Affection seemed like a hazy dream, as if he had a hangover without the headache.

"Raven, I---"

Raven held a hand out to silence him. He shut up and watched as she stepped towards him. Her tone was clipped and rushed, but the menacing threat was clear in her words, unspoken or not: "As you already know, this is a portal to my mind, my inner sanctum. My mirror was made as a transportation device of some sort---_not a toy!_" She hissed the last three words through clamped teeth and held herself back, preventing herself from mauling the green boy. Beast Boy laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"Um, yeah. I figured that out." Affection had phased somewhere else for a time-out, and the Titans had started walking aimlessly.

"Would you mind if I asked what the Hell you were just doin'?" Cyborg questioned Beast Boy. He turned away and was about to tell him that he honestly had no idea what happened. He had just gone...insane. She made both his human hormones and his animal instincts run wild. His sex drive had been kickin' it at one hundred and eighty miles per hour.

Raven cut in, "My emotions have abilities in my mind that I either have control over or refuse to use. Such as with Happy and her ability to hear everyone's thoughts constantly, Affection can influence one's emotions. She can plant thoughts in their mind---in a way, it's as if she excretes endorphins. Affection is deliberately...affectionate. If you had walked in instead of Beast Boy," Raven nodded her head at Cyborg, "then she would have done the same thing."

She made it clear that she did not want to continue on the subject of finding her physical clone sucking on the throat of a nearly-shirtless Beast Boy, and the green changeling was perfectly fine with that. It was just...all that stuff Affection had told him...it was all a lie? She had made him feel so loved, so happy...something that English couldn't describe. She had told him she loved him; would she have told Cyborg the same, just to follow her natural impulse to flirt? Beast Boy became strangely sad at the rejection, but he smothered it professionally. He was a master when it came to hiding sadness.

"Do you have any idea how to get out of here?" Cyborg asked Raven, and she shrugged. "What do you mean by _that_?" Cyborg asked fearfully, mimicking her shoulder gesture.

"This place has changed since I was last here; it seems, darker. So no, I don't know how to get back home from here." Beast Boy rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, walking on Happy Mountain is so---" They walked through the arch and his vision shimmered before he found himself standing right back where he and Cyborg had first landed. "Dark..." Beast Boy finished, gawking up at the red-starred sky hanging above him. This couldn't possibly be right! They had already been here! This just wasn't fair!

"Hey, I know where we are!" Cyborg exclaimed. "We're in that place that I didn't know where we were before!"

"The Central Plain," Raven murmured in agreement. Cyborg spotted another arch down further, and pointed at it.

"That's that 'Forbidden Door', right Raven?" he asked eagerly, and Raven nodded suspiciously. Raven seemed to doubt how effortless this was, but Beast Boy was just happy that they would be able to get home, at long last!

Before they could take one step forward, another one of Raven's emotions popped up in front of him. Beast Boy screamed, and Raven's emotion screamed, causing Beast Boy to scream even louder and jump into Raven's arms. She scoffed at his petty fear and dropped him to the floor, and he screamed again.

"It's only Timid," she told him icily, wiping her hands on her cloak.

"I'm sorry!" the Raven-look-alike wailed, tears streaming down her face. "I didn't mean to do that! I--I--I---" She sobbed, taking in one wrenching breath after another. Beast Boy saw that this Raven was draped in a gray robe, with droopy, wet, half-lidded eyes that contained silver specks instead of Raven's original gold.

"Wait, it's okay!" Beast Boy said uneasily as he tried---and failed---at calming the distressed emotion. She bawled even harder when he went to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Just get out of out way," Raven snarled, shoving past her. Apparently Raven disliked Timid, Beast Boy observed. Raven jumped back when solid walls came up from the ground, blocking her way and cutting the Forbidden Door out of Beast Boy's line of vision. Timid cowered next to Beast Boy's side, knees knocking together. "What in the---"

Beast Boy morphed into a hawk and flew straight up to see if he could gain some height, but after twenty feet, he was electrocuted by some invisible force field. He cawed in pain and dropped right out of the sky, landing in a heap of tangled arms in legs next to Cyborg. "Great..." He mumbled, rubbing his sore head. Cyborg growled angrily, paranoia setting in. He blasted away at the walls with his sonic cannon, but when the dust cleared, the walls stood perfectly straight, not so much as a mark on them. What kind of indestructible thingamagigy were these walls made of, anyway?

"Urgh! We have to get out of here!" Cyborg screamed to the Heavens (or whatever floated above this scarily-lit nighttime sky.)

"It's a maze," Timid explained shyly, blushing when everyone turned to stare at her. "You can't get out, you have to go through. I can show you the way...but when we reach the end, you won't like me anymore." She hunched her shoulders and looked back at Beast Boy, sadness clear in her eyes. "He already doesn't like me."

"C'mon! That's not---" Before Beast Boy could defend himself, Timid began to walk away, tears streaming from her eyes and down her chin. He glanced at Raven through the corners of his eyes as they began walking again.

"You really think that I don't like you?"

"I thought it was obvious from the way that you refer to me as the creepy member of the team," Raven said in a curt tone. "I know you both don't enjoy my presence. I'n not exactly the most lively member of the group."

"Raven, you're one of the Titans!" Cyborg declared. "Of course we enjoy your presence or whatever! You just never seemed into the whole 'friendship' thing." Beast Boy nodded in agreement and Raven tossed her hood up, remaining silent.

"So what's her special talent?" Beast Boy mused, changing the subject, much to Raven's obviously smothered glee.

"She has an uncanny sense of direction; metaphorically, because she isn't an actual person, she's like a human compass."

"I'm sorry I scared you," Timid said to Beast Boy. "And, I'm sorry for the time that I had thrown you in the lake. Oh, and I'm also sorry about the time I---"

This was going to be a long walk.

---

"And, remember the time I called you both immature pinheads? I'm sorry for that, too. Oh, and, also---"

"For the hundreth-millionth time," Beast Boy gasped, throwing up his arms before both he and Cyborg yelled, "_we forgive you!"_

They had been walking for almost ten minutes straight, following Timid through all the twists and turns of the maze. Throughout the entire maze, Timid had taken the time out to apologize for everything she could have ever done to either of them. Raven had trialed behind them, obviously uncomfortable with her look-alike acting like a spine-less cry baby, pinching the bridge of her nose and keeping her eyes shut. Timid looked back at them, scared by the sudden raising of their voice, and knocked once on the wall she had walked up to. It opened like a door and the Forbidden Door was less than twelve feet away. On either side of the exit was a statue; one had a smile, while the other had a frown, but both had four stone eyes that glared no where. A cloak had been carved on both of them, covering their feet and body. They looked to be very tall. Each hand was tucked against their sides, fingers curled inward. There was something...wrong about them. "That's the end," Timid muttered darkly.

"Sweet!" Beast Boy thrust his fists into the air, and Cyborg mirrored his display of joy.

"All right, Timid!"

Of course, the universe wasn't happy with just that. The universe had to make things so much more complicated than they had to be. The two statues' eyes shone redder than ever, bruning through the dark atmosphere. They joined together, back to back, and became one living, moving, murderous statue-monster-thingie. Beast Boy shivered at the sight of it, sensing that even Raven found it startling. The arms of the statue were outstretched, the claw-like hands palm-side up as they were held expectantly out. Two iron bladed swords materialized in a haze of red matter, dropping into the hands of the statue with a resounding clang once the metal met the stone. Cyborg groaned and backed away; Beast Boy gawked up at it and took a good two steps behind Cyborg; Raven gasped but stayed rooted to the spot where she was; Timid hid behind the three, using them as a shield to protect her from the evil that was this statue. _Horrible landscapers, _Beast Boy wanted to whisper, but he couldn't find his voice.

"Told you you wouldn't like me when we got here," Timid glumly stated before dissapearing to another part of the dimension. The three Titans glanced at her once before their gaze flickered back up to the statue, which was towering over them at nearly twelve feet. This thing took on a new meaning to the phrase "eyes on the back of my head." The smirking face was leering towards them, it's eyes bright red against the gray stone head, and a grating sound went up into the air as it moved its once immovable legs. It was coming closer and closer... Beast Boy morhped into a hawk and soared through to the sky and out of it's path. Still, it continued on with that horrible smile, arms slicing and chopping and slaying constantly. It swung once at Cyborg, missed, and tried once more as the robot vainly tried to blast it away with his sonic canon. Raven stood in her spot, paralyzed. She was trembling, from the looks of it, eyes glassy and wide. _Move!_ Beast Boy screamed mentally, but she would not unfreeze. The statue turned on her instead, as Beast Boy was out of reach and Cyborg was getting too pestering; Raven was the easy target, a sitting duck.

Beast Boy would have sighed frustratedly if he could have. If she wanted to stand there and quiver, whatever. Looks like it was Beast Boy's time to shine, anyway. He dive-bombed the statue, using his talons to claw at it's rocky face. To no avail, he cawed wildly and pecked at the eyes, but nothing happened. The smile stayed on as it reached for him with one large stone hand and encased him in its fist. Ah, damn it. Beast Boy changed once more into a human shape, no longer able to use his powers to help him in this situation. The statue smiled up at him with an invisible sense of satisfaction---it was doing its job, and doing it correctly. Beast Boy groaned and stuggled, although he knew it was no use, staring angrily back at that evil face. _Service with a smile_, he thought stupidly as it rasied an arm to slash through his chest. Game over, Beast Boy. Only, this wasn't a video game. He couldn't whine later about losing unfairly before pressing the restart button. There was no restart button now.

Just Game Over.

"Yo, eight eyes! Hiyah!"

Beast Boy grunted as he was dropped onto the floor, free from his stone prison. Looks like a restart button had just been installed. Another emotion of Raven's, green cloaked this time, had fallen miraculously fromt he sky as a gift from the Heavens, saving Beast Boy's green butt from death. She landed a flying kick on the statues smiling face, right between the eyes...ses. The statue was thrown back at the force of the blow, and the Green Raven landed proudly, hands on her hips. "In your faces!" She jeered. Clearly not amused at how the plans were changing, the statues face switched to the crying one. It lunged at Green Raven, arms hacking madly as it tried to chop her in half. Green Raven seemed unafraid, weaving expertly through the attacks as if it was a dance she had been practicing. She found an opening in the statues attack and took the chance bodly, without a second thought. She leaped straight for its hooded head, using two fingers to drag all the way down to the floor. In one second, the statue split in two, crumbling before her. Beast Boy shielded his eyes and watched, amazed, as she kicked the remaining stones away easily, although they looked to weigh over one hundred pounds.

"Hoo-ah! High-fives! C'mon!" Green Raven cheered at her success, holding her palms out to be slapped in return. Her hood had fallen off, revealing her face. Again, she was a copy of Raven, all for her emerald-speckled eyes. Beast Boy stood and stared at her, ears drooped. She hadn't even broken a sweat! Unbelievable! Now she was a God damned marine?!

"Bravery, just leave," Raven said snarkily as she broke from her trance. Beast Boy wanted to sneer at her. Oh, so now that they weren't battling a possesed pile of rocks, she could talk to them again? Bravery obeyed, dissapearing and Raven shook her head. "This is very bad..." Raven muttered. From above them, Ravens cawed and flew in a different direction. Beast Boy felt the same way they did; go anywhere but right in this spot. Something bad was going to go down. "You have to go. Now!" Raven ordered.

"Hold up," Cyborg demanded, "what's going on here?"

"What, besides being tossed into Ravens mind and playing hide-and-seek with her emotions?" Beast Boy rolled his eyes, but Raven ignored him.

"Last night," she said in a tone that implied she was admitting to a crime. "Something...got loose. Something bad," she widened her eyes at that word for emphasis.

"Oh no you don't!" Beast Boy growled, putting his foot down. Raven looked at him curiously. "I've had it with this mystery girl routine!" He glared, flapping his arms. Raven rolled her eyes and her shoulders slumped, which infuriated Beast Boy further. This wasn't fair at all. First she goes crazy on Dr. Light, then explodes his eggs, and then he and Cyborg are just thrust into her mind where all of her emotions start playing head-games with both of them. "I want to know exactly what we're talking about here!"

A great, thunderous roar came from the horizon, and Beast Boy recieved and answer.

A tornado of red energy whirrled into existance before, from the eye of the storm, came forth a man about the size of a skyscraper. His skin was dyed red, a pure red, and veins and muscles buldged as he let loose another roar. All he was dressed in was a black lion-cloth and silver wrist-covers, along with silver boots. Long, white hair was blown back by the sudden wind, and he grimaced down at them, fangs white. And his four, horrible yellow eyes, burning endlessly.

Beast Boy was overcome with the strongest fear he had ever felt. When he had said that he had been scared, before with Raven during the Dr. Light Episode, he had only gotten a taste of this fear. This sunk into his gut, tore at his heart and froze his spine, making his muscles paralyze. This was _beyond_ fear.

"Hatred shall rule!" the red man bellowed fiercly, shaking the ground with the power of his voice. Beast Boy trembled. Evil didn't seem to begin to cover this guy.

"Lets just say...I have issues with my father," Raven answered. "Trigon..." The Titans waddled back a few feet. The man, Raven's "Father" took a step foward, the rock shaking under his weight. He leaned foward and beared his teeth like a wild animal. Beast Boy felt one of the most girlish screams rise in his throat, but he swallowed it down somehow, like bile. Trigon stepped closer again, and Beast Boy wasn't allowed to think any more. Instincts took over immediately, forcing him to flee. Cyborg was at his heels as he clumsily pounded towards the Forbidden Door---he didn't think, couldn't think, wouldn't think. Fear filled him, causing his instincts to panic, making him want to run faster. He could hear was the deafening boom of Trigon's powers as a light blasted from his eyes, headed straight towards Raven, but he kept on going, unable to turn back to see if she was okay. Her Father stomped closer once she was out of the way, but Beast Boy kept running. Not thinking, just running.

Then Trigon sent a ray of the laser-light towards the two fleeing Titans, and Beast Boy screamed as he was thrown back, his face stinging. They were so close to the Door now!

Raven swooped down from the skies, hands outstretched as she defended her friends. She began to chant, creating a dome of black energy around the trio as her Father roared angrily at her defiance and blasted away again. Beast Boy covered his head, shivering. Evil, evil evil, evil. Everything about this man was so bad, so _bad! _The dome started to shimmer, Trigon's heat-vision starting to overpower it. "Get...Out...Of my...Mind..." Raven gasped as she held the force field, arms shaking.

"And leave you alone with this thing?" Beast Boy questioned as he watched her. She was in so much pain, he could just sense it...How dare she suggest they leaver her _now, _when she needed them the most. "Not gunna happen!" Cyborg agreed stubbornly. Beast Boy was aware that the portal had been opened by Raven, but he stood his ground. He was scared absolutely _shitless_ of Trigon, but he would rather die than leave Raven to fight alone. If anything happened to her, and it was because he ran like a coward...He wouldn't be able to look at himself without being disgusted.

"It's my problem," She breathed, and the force field lessened more. "I'll deal with it. If I lose, you'll be stuck in here forever!" Raven explained, drawing forth more power. Trigon had abandoned his heat vision, instead holding back both palms and creating a giant ball of fire. He thrust his hands out, pitching fireball after another at the dome. Finally, it broke, and Beast Boy flinched. There was silence for a moment as Raven regained strength, arms crossed as she blocked her face.

"Go!" she shouted, using her powers to push them to the Forbidden Door. Why wouldn't she listen to them? She couldn't do this alone! They skidded to a stop right before the Doorway, and Beast Boy looked up in time to see Trigon clap his hands as he tried to catch Raven, who was flying around him in the same way a gnat buzzed around a persons head. After multiple attempts and many fire-bolts, shot her, and she fell from the sky. Beast Boy gasped in fear as he caught her, and she fell limply onto his hand, hood down to reveal her face. She had been knocked unconscious by the blow, her eyes fluttered closed.

"Raven," Trigon rumbled, "Rage shall consume you."

"Yo!" Cyborg shouted, catching the monsters attention. Trigon turned to glare down at him. "Sounds like somebody needs a time-out." Cyborg fired at him several times, landing hits on his arms, chest and legs. The monster released Raven and she plummeted down to the ground as Trigon fell from the cliff he had emerged from, his scream echoing off the rocks. _Raven! _Beast Boy screamed to himself, jumping into action. He dove after her as a large bird, large enough to keep a talon on her shoulder as she fell; she would be much to heavy to carry. A sick feeling entered his gut when he realized that she might not make it, that she might fall. That she might splatter all over the ground.

That thought was vanquished when her eyes cracked open, beautifully violet, and she made a sound of recognition. She steadied herself enough to land safely, on her bottom as she helf her head, exhaling softly. Beast Boy landed next to her, finally acheiving balance for once in his life as a human. Her hood was off, allowing Beast Boy to smile directly to her face. As hard as she tried to conceal it, surprise was written on her features in permanent ink. That, and a pleasent happiness. "You..stayed? I thought you didn't like me..." she whispered, still slightly weak.

"I thought you didn't like me," Beast Boy replied with a hand on her shoulder, and the two shared a smile. Hm, so maybe she wasn't so hateful towards him after all. And her smile...nothing else could describe it except that it was magnificent. It was better than even Happy's smile. Radiant, gorgeous, angelic...Damn it all if he could find a better word for it. He felt his fang poke into his upper lip as he smiled back reflexively, and he was certain he heard her heart miss at least half a beat.

"Yo, I like both of you!" Cyborg screamed, bringing the two back down to Earth...or wherever this was. "Now get you're butts over here!" Beast Boy dropped his hand from her shoulder as he watched, terror-stricken, as Trigon rose from the drop. That had to be more than fifty miles down! And was it just Beast Boy's imagination, or was Trigon...growing?

"Feel my fury!" He yelled, angered, and fired a ray of his heat vision towards Cyborg, who leaped away just in time. Together, Cyborg and Beast Boy attacked Trigon, defending Raven from whatever evil he could conjer up. Cyborg continuously showered sonic waves towards him, while Beast Boy circled around his head as a pterodactyl. Taking a risk, he flapped behind his head and grabbed a talon-full of hair. Trigon bellowed and Beast Boy almost let go of the strands but thought once: _this is for Raven!_ With all of his strength, Beast Boy tugged at his hair, succesfully causing the monster to fall flat on his back. He was up in a matter of seconds, firing heat-rays insanely. Before he could melt Cyborg into a puddle, Beast Boy swooped down and picked him up away from the attack. Trigon growled; things obviously weren't going as planned. He looked around and the growl resided into his throat, as he thundered away in search of the Titans.

Said teenagers were hiding with their backs to the slant of rock they were cowering behind, breathing heavy. Beast Boy was lucky he hadn't wet himself yet. "He's too strong," Raven admitted, more to herself then to Beast Boy and Cyborg, as she threw her hood down. "Even with your help, I cannot defeat him."

"So why don't you call for back up? What about all those other yous?" Cyborg whispered ferociously.

"Yeah, the green one kinda kicked butt," Beast Boy added helpfully.

"It still wouldn't be enough," Raven informed him hopelessly. "None of my other sides have the kind of power we need," she said, sounding desperate.

"Not alone," Beast Boy said suddenly, and Raven peered up at him from under her lashes. He stopped, dumbfounded by her prettiness, but managed to go on. "But what about together? They're all part of who you are, right?" Ha! Not too shabby, Beast Boy! Even Raven seemed impressed with that! Trigon came thundering back, and the sliver of rock they had been using as shelter shook and crumbled. Beast Boy shut his eyes and moved slightly over Raven, blocking her as a stream of pebbles showered over him. Trigon had started blasting away at the area, figuring he would just exterminate everything in his path.

"Go for it, we got your back!" Cyborg encouraged, giving her a thumbs up. Raven was taken back by this motion, and her surprised eyes moved from Cyborg to Beast Boy. He smiled widely at her in agreement; he and Cy would never let this creep hurt her. He took in her image on last time, in case he didn't make it, and memorized every feature. He wanted to remember the person he was fighting for. He would have died for her, even. All the Titans were friends, people he would fight to the death for. As freaky as she was, Raven was no exception. As he stared at her for those few seconds, thought: yes, I would totally die for this chick. Not Shakspire, but he thought the impact of the words had to ocunt for something...

"Let's move!" Cyborg commanded, and he set off towards Trigon. Before he ran after his best friend, Beast Boy hesitated and hugged Raven briefly, feeling awkward as she stiffened underneath him, and retreated before she could do anything. He sprinted after Cyborg, who was firing mercilessly at Trigon. The monster created a portal with his powers, and from his palm came forth a flock of angry ravens and crows. Beast Boy transformed into a pterodactyl again and flew away, but Cyborg screamed and wind-milled his arms as he tried to defend himself from the birds. Beast Boy ducked down and dropped to his feet as he avoided the birds, but they were gone.

He looked and saw that Raven, dressed completely in white, was duking it out with Trigon herself. From her eyes, from her mouth, from her hands came bursts of energy, and a continuous stream of power flew out to Trigon as she attacked. He roared in fury and shot his own stream of red energy at her. The two conflicting powers met in the middle, each magic-weilder evenly matched. With a grunt of effort, Raven pushed further, and slowly she overcame Trigon's powers. The once giant man shrunk to another one of Raven's emotions, but dressed in red and with four glowing red eyes. Raven floated down and watched it passively. The Red Raven looked up at her once before becoming a part of Raven once more as it transformed into a crackle of energy, snapping at her. With a groan and a cloud of smoke, the regular blue-cloaked Raven was back again, hunched over herself in the midst of the cloud. A breeze blew it clear and she stood proudly for a moment before swaying and falling back.

"It's okay, we got'chu," Cyborg soothed quietly, and Beast Boy caught her from behind, wrapping an arm around her waist. She awakened quickly before getting to her feet. Was she...flushing? Beast Boy wondered, looking at her pale face and her faintly pink cheeks. No, he decided. It must have been the weird lighting.

"Thank you...friends," she added slowly. The word was apparently new to her.

"So," Beast Boy drawled, "does this mean we really are friends?"

Oh my God, Beast Boy thought. She's really turning red at the word! "Mm-hm," Raven agreed, allowing a small smile to grace her full lips. She honestly didn't know how beautiful she was, Beast Boy realized, or she would smile more. He waggled his eyebrows at her, cocking his head to the right and clasping his hands together. "And you really think I'm funny?" The smile dissapeared and Cyborg looked down at him strangely.

"Don't push it," Raven warned in her regular tone, the color fading from her face. Beast Boy sighed.

"Worth a try..."

"So, how about getting us---" Cyborg began.

In a swirl of lights, the three Titans were in the center of Ravens room, kept so neat Beast Boy didn't know how she could live in it. Not one piece of clothing on the floor, not one candy bar hidden under the bed---how did someone live like this?! "Home?" the cybernetic Titans finished, smiling. Beast Boy's ears twitched as he heard a sound by the door.

"---don't want to disturb her!" Beast Boy heard Robin grunt, obviously using all of his strength for something.

"But if we merely---" Starfire started to explain, but the door opened before she could continue. The two other Titans were in a funny position: Starfire was standing perfectly straight with one fist extended to knock on the door. Robin, struggling as he tried to fight her alien strength and preven her from opening the door, had both hands wrapped around her wrist, one foot on the door, and had his back arched like a bow. Now that the door had opened, he fell back onto the floor, and Beast Boy stopped himself from snickering. Starfire gasped as the three missing Titans filed out from Raven's room, poker faced.

"Where have you guys been?" Robin wondered, obviously worried. The three shared a look before flashing secretive smile.

"Just gettin' to know each other," Cyborg answered plainly. Well, it was kind of true...

"Come friends!" Starfire cried joyously, throwing her arms out. "We shall prepare a new breakfast feast!" Cyborg placed his hands on his hips while Raven reverted back to her original point-blank stare. Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck uneasily.

"It's a little late from breakfast, Star..." He trailed off glancing at Raven. "Maybe just some herbal tea," he suggested, attempting nonchalance. He could swear Raven's eyes shimmered for a second when she looked at him with what was only considered gratefulness. Her smile was small, but still powerful, and Beast Boy was sure that she had flushed in the bright light of the hall.

"Actually, breakfast sounds, nice..." Raven asnwered, throwing back his offer. Beast Boy raised an eyebrow, unsure how to react to her kindness. After all, this wasn't skomething he was accustomed to. After a moment, he smiled a lip-splitting grin, sparkling his eyes at her.

"Breakfast for dinner, coming right up!" Beast Boy said, running to the kitchen before anyone else.

"Oh no, I'm cookin' this time!" Cyborg shouted as he chased the green boy down the hall. "And we're usin' real eggs!"

Beast Boy felt as if someone was watching him, but shook the feeling off. The night was young, they had defeated Trigon, he was Raven's friend...

Now all he had to do was beat Cy to the kitchen, and he would be in Heaven.


	7. Nevermore Part II

Everything felt as if she had been dipped in acid. All her muscles were strained, all her joints felt sore; all her rasping breathes felt pained, every heartbeat an accomplished miracle. Raven went from sitting on her bed, meditating, to curling up into fettle position as she clutched her pounding head. Pain was all she could feel, all she could sense. It obliterated any other kind of thought. There was only one word that constantly echoed through her mind: _escape_. But how would you escape what was causing one pain, when that very thing was yourself?

Raven used all of the strength she could muster to straighten her spine out and sit back up, biting down on her lip hard enough for blood to come out as she prevented herself from shrieking in pain. _You've dealt with worse_, Raven, she told herself through the cloud of misery that was cloaking her mind. _Much more has happened to you, so suck it up and get back on your feet. You can't expect to cry over this and have someone help you out. It's only you, so shut up and get up_.

Balling her hands into tight fists, she threw herself out of her bed before her body could protest and keep her from moving any longer. Her legs were unable to support her weight and she collapsed with a heavy thud. Her knees felt as if they had shattered and she let loose a moan before she could swallow it. Her head hit the floor soon after with a sickening crack, and her eyelids flickered closed. She forced them open, as difficult as it was, until she could be sure they wouldn't fall again. Her vision was swimming, the room was spinning, the floor felt like it was hanging above her...

Her forehead was burning with a high fever, and her blood pressure was most likely higher than any doctor had ever measured. Her heart was rapidly pumping blood—the blood of a sinner, she knew, for the original sin that no Baptist could cleanse her of ran thick through her body—through her veins, flushing her skin and causing her to break out in a sweat. Violet strands of hair tangled together like vines, sticking to her cheeks and the back of her neck. The area above her temples throbbed angrily, like there was something attempting to burst through her skull. Her hands shook and her stomach heaved as she picked herself up, swaying as if she had just stepped off of an amusement park ride. But there was no amusement in this. No, only pure terror gripped her now.

Staggering like a drunk, she accidentally tripped over her cloak, which was too long now, and slammed right into her wall. Her nose exploded with pain and her hands shot up to check if there was any bleeding, but she had staggered back, and this threw her off balance once more. The back of her head collided with the floor and she writhed on the ground in agony, limbs flailing about. The pain enveloped her mind, ushering away every other coherent thought. Her breathing grew labored and she crawled on her hands and knees to get to her dresser. Her shoulder bumped into the corner, and the contents rattled on the tabletop. On her knees now, she looked at her trembling hands. Her vision had doubled… tripled… _quadrupled_ now. The ache coming from her temples intensified and her gums started to hurt as if something sharp was puncturing them. The world was becoming red-tinted.

Goddess, no, not now!

Knees knocking together, Raven yanked herself back up and faced her mirror. She gasped at her reflection, because this person was not her. Her features were sharper and crueler, but her malicious beauty was undeniable. The women's cheek bones were edgy and gave her face a clean-cut appearance. Her chin was pointed and defined maturely. Her hair was an inky black color, cascading down her back and shoulders up to her waist. Her two pairs of eyes burned sinisterly with a red energy that lit the dark room she stood in, casting shadows that made her face seem hallow. From both sides of her forehead protruded two gnarled, antler-like horns with sharp ends. Her skin was completely pale, except for the red light her eyes were giving off. Fangs stuck out crudely from her upper lip, which was the bright color of berries against her skin, pure white and curled like tusks. Her cloak was dyed red with the blood of all that opposed her. Her fingernails had grown into claws—used to scratch out the eyes of her enemies and to rip apart their limbs, to tear their flesh and—

_No_.

This wasn't her. She refused to believe it. This wasn't her! The woman in the mirror wore an expression similar to how Raven felt; afraid, ashamed, and angry.

_(Raven)_

A voice echoed from inside her mind, deep and rumbling with an unspoken air of authority, power, and evil. Raven recognized her father immediately. The women copied Raven's actions, throwing her hands up to cover her ears, even though she knew it was futile to keep from hearing that horrid voice.

No, Raven argued, and the woman's mouth curled into a snarl of defiance.

_(This is who you are, my child. Stop running from your fate and accept that this is who you—)_

"No!!" Raven screamed aloud, watching as the woman in the mirror opened her mouth her berry-colored mouth and shouted a silent shriek, fangs creating dimples in her chin. Raven shut her eyes and the woman in the mirror did the same. She heard the familiar snapping of her powers being unleashed against her will and the sound of glass cracking. She opened her eyes once more and the world had gone back to normal.

Her own reflection gazed astounded back at her from both sides of the mirror she had accidentally destroyed, snapped in half. Her features had been rounded and brought back to the original teenager-like state that had once been. Her hair was short and purple again, stringy with sweat. Only two eyes stared back, irises a deep purple instead of a crimson red. Her skin was still pale, but her cheeks were flushed and sweat clung to her face. The horns had vanished, along with her extra-long incisors. Her hand fluttered up slowly to touch her mouth, and thankfully her nails had shrunk back to being bitten to the cuticles. She prodded her mouth and checked for fangs, and any other abnormalities, but her search came up empty. She licked her lips, which were suddenly dry.

That had been...terrifying.

_WEE-OO!_

_WEE-OO!_

_WEE-OO!_

The alarm signaling a super villain attacking someone or attempting a robbery or whatever went off, echoing through the halls. The siren flashed red, and Raven's breathing hitched before she told herself that it was only the alarm causing the red light. Not her. Her migraine had come back with a vengeance, as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to her head. Black spots flickered in and out of her vision and she blinked them away, throwing her hood up to cover her face and to hide her strange appearance. She managed to not fall down the stairs and she stumbled blindly into the main room. Seeing her teammates all stand in the room with her, gawking up at the computer screen that told them Dr. Light had acted upon another lame whim, bathed in the red light, Raven's headache grew worse.

The sight of the Titans made her...angry. Raven scowled, rage welling up inside her. Starfire and her happiness, always making Raven sick, her goofy smile, her unnatural ability to forgive, her unfaltering love for her friends...she disgusted Raven. Robin, and his annoying bossy-I'm-the-leader attitude and stupid mask, his over-controlling personality and inability to accept that he had lost at anything made her want to hit something. Her eyebrow twitch as her glare landed on Beast Boys back. She felt herself tremble with anger as she stared at him, her passionate feelings of maliciousness multiplying, more intense now than she had ever felt before. Idiotic, immature, mindless, mocking, reckless, ungrateful, stupid, cruel—

Cyborg sprinted through the doorway with his arms full with groceries and Raven shook her head, bringing herself out of the trance. Seeing Cyborg with all that food reminded her that they were all out of anything remotely edible. She could fuzzily remember Beast Boy and Cyborg arguing over their latest meal. The disagreement ended with Beast Boy flushing all the meat products down the toilet and Cyborg throwing all the tofu and soy products out of the window, She almost smiled when she remember how angry she had sounded when she told Cyborg that he had also thrown out her tea. He had been shaking for at least ten minutes. These were her teammates she was looking at. My teammates, who have always...always...

She bit her lip and felt herself sway as she swallowed the scream of anger she wanted to release before she could finish her sentence. Always what? Always ignoring her, always keeping their distance and treating her like a freak, always looking at her over their shoulders, always making sure that they wouldn't try to make her angry and face her wrath. Always fearing her, like the cowards that they were!

"Dr. Light's at it again!" Robin shouted, although most of the Titans had already known this. Well, perhaps Beast Boy had not. Said changeling's shoulders slumped and she was hit with a fresh wave of disappointment. He wasn't the only one, Raven thought bitterly. Dr. Light was the worst villain they ever had the displeasure to fight against. Beast Boy turned, a frown on his face, and he sadly met her eyes. She hissed under her breath, his gaze hurting her. His emerald eyes, which she secretly took pleasure in staring at when he didn't know she was watching, felt as if they were cutting through her skin, burning her like a fire.

While she was normally happy to have him look at her—merely because she enjoyed someone at least acknowledging her presence—she felt disgusted that he was looking at her. He seemed as if he was questioning her well-being, although she didn't want to be bothered at the moment. His concern merely annoyed her when she normally would have been flattered that someone cared, the taste of his emotions disgusting in her mouth to the point where she felt her lips pucker up.

But she had bigger things to worry about right now. The Titans exited towards the location Dr. Light had been spotted and Raven was irritated that she wasn't able to maintain a proper flight pattern. How could she fight crime and try to forget about Father when she couldn't even master telekinesis, the most simplest of all of her powers?! She touched her temple with two gentle fingers and flinched at the how feverish her face felt. Perhaps she shouldn't have come today, instead staying home to meditate and control her sudden burst of anger.

Making sure her expression was fierce, she landed gracefully next to the rest of the Titans once Dr. Light was spotted. The heroes expertly placed themselves so that they surrounded Dr. Light, preventing him from fleeing with any money he had managed to pilfer. The man, clothed in an all-black outfit with a light bulb on the chest, stood proudly on an armored van that had been flipped over. His eyes, a sickening yellow color, glowed from underneath his greasy, jet-black hair. His chapped lips curled into a triumphant sneer and Raven suppressed a snarl. Out of all of the super villains the Titans fought with, next to Mumbo, Dr. Light was one of the most annoying yet. His hands eerily started to glimmer, and he cried out, "Your pathetic skills can't outshine the brilliance of Dr. Light!" Thrusting both blazing fists at the Titans, the air crackled with electricity. Raven could feel the air grow incredibly humid for a moment before a blinding ray of light shot from his grimy fingers. Raven felt her head pound at the sound the energy-ray made once it connected with the street, luckily missing Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire.

The Titans leader leapt deftly up to Dr. Light and tore a bird-a-ran out from his utility belt before chucking it with all of his might at the Light-themed bad guy. Dr. Light swiftly dodged his attack, and Raven flinched as Robin's heavy boots made a loud clunk! on the van as he landed, a scowl painted on his masked face. He was growing angry, impatient. The emotions felt raw on her dry tongue, choking her, and Raven gagged silently, thankfully unnoticed by any of the Titans. Sensing Robin's irritation was adding to her own now, fueling the fire that was her rage. This was not a good sign, Raven thought as she swallowed the foul taste of annoyance.

"You're fast," Dr. Light complimented, although his voice sounded mocking. "But I doubt you'll like moving at the speed of light!" Tugging at the light bulb symbol on his chest, Dr. Light revealed a secret compartment containing a weapon of some sort. A beam of high-powered light flashed, cutting through the night like a knife. Spots danced before her eyes and the first thing she could see once her vision faded back to normal was Robin flying through the air, screaming. While she was worried for her leader, a nagging voice in the back of her mind cackled happily at his misfortune. It was a voice she had managed to control, a voice she hadn't heard since her first temper tantrum. _Looks like this birdie can fly!_ The voice laughed gleefully, giggling as he hit the sidewalk with a thwack!

Evil, Raven muttered to herself. The voice was that of her natural temptation to be evil and she refused to give into it.

Although…

Raven replayed the image of Robin flapping his arms and she ducked her head to conceal a smile that was beginning to form. Her head pounded in rhythm with her fast-beating heart. Her chest constricted painfully, but she ignored it, focusing mainly on how funny Robin had reacted. He did look like he was a bird trying to take off and fly. His face had looked so hilarious when he hit the ground, distorted with pain as his side connected with the concrete and pain exploded throughout his hip…Raven snorted with laughter and she quickly threw her hands over her mouth, surprised eyes wide with fear and uncertainty.

_Stop_!

Her eyes darted to Beast Boy for a distraction that would keep her from bursting out into laughter. He growled, already in the shape of a wolf. His fury was feeding Raven, giving her more power. The dull roar of anger was building up slowly, becoming a wave of energy behind her calm exterior. The feeling was so…invigorating. She felt empowered now, and she pressed for more. She needed to feel his rage. She desperately wanted to cling to this feeling of control. For once, in her entire life as an empath, she felt as if she was in command of her own emotions. Was this what normal humans were allowed to feel? She wondered as she watched Dr. Light dart away from Beast Boy.

It was _wonderful!_

Carefully, so that she wouldn't be noticed, Raven pushed gently with her mind, influencing his emotions with her own. Maybe if she added onto his anger, it would sustain her, last her a bit longer…

She shut her eyes and concentrated on connecting with his own mind, wolf-like and primitive, and she gasped. Shuddering in orgasmic shivers, she moaned silently to herself. She had unlocked his emotions, mingling them with her own. He was enraged with Dr. Light now, and he dove for his jugular. Going for the kill, one could say. His beady eyes narrowed and he bared his sharp teeth, snapping at his throat. His rage was encasing her, surrounding her, filling up her veins with the rich feeling of hate. Raven covered her mouth to keep from giggling with glee. This was all too enjoyable to watch! Oh! She had never realized how easy it would be to control her stupid teammates, whom were merely puppets for her amusement now. Like putting on a play, she mused. Her powers began to slip away from her, and she was nearly dragged into his conscious. She stumbled backwards and severed the connection.

_Snap out of it Raven! You can't just control other people emotions! It's…Azar has taught you that it's wrong!_

_(What others condemn to be wrong, or "feared" is merely something misunderstood. Many weaklings fear power, thus telling their followers that it is not right. But you can be so powerful, my Daughter. So powerful, so strong. Just give into your anger and you shall feel true power.)_

She covered her ears again and shook her head, closing her eyes.

_NONONONONONONONONO!!_

_Go away! Leave! Never tell me such lies again, Father! Never!_

Raven twisted her head around wildly, looking for something—anything—that she could do to keep from listening to His voice. The voice of Sin. Beast Boy was on the floor now, sitting with his eyes glassy and his head swaying. He looked to be in pain, but Raven could care less right now. She looked past him and found that Cyborg was now trapped in a giant block of melted metal. Robin and Starfire were nowhere to be seen, probably somewhere recovering from their injuries. When had Dr. Light become such a threat to them?

"Now, if nobody minds, I'll be talking the gold," Dr. Light gloated, obviously delighted that he had defeated the Titans, the famous crime fighter of Jump City. Ha! Raven had yet to show Dr. Light how tough these superheroes could get. Now it was time to end this battle, clean and simple. He was becoming an annoying gnat to Raven, and he needed to be taught a lesson. She had a job to do.

"I mind."

Raising both hands above her head, palms facing upwards, she glared at Dr. Light angrily. Would she be able to use her powers without losing control? Her head was pounding, her legs felt like jelly, and her stomach was tight. She could do this as long as she kept herself calm throughout the fight. Calm, and oblivious to the voice echoing through her head. Already she could feel traces of telekinetic energy seep from her fingertips. Fighting the pain it caused her to say her meditation lines aloud, she cried, "Azarath Mentrion Zin—" Before she could finish, her chest exploded with pain as Dr. Light hit her between both breasts with a beam of light. She grunted, trying not to scream, and closed her eyes as she skidded back a few feet. She was dully aware of how inflamed Beast Boy's anger was, spiking up abnormally, but she was too busy keeping herself from ripping open her arm as she tumbled down the street. She huffed, out of breath when she stopped, and clenched her teeth. How had he done that to her? More importantly, how had she let her guard down like that?

"A bit of advice," Dr. Light said softly to her, his confidence so strong that she could see the aura surround his body. Her eyes widened reflexively and she started up at the man, who was smirking down at her as if she was a small child. His superiority was infuriating. Raven ground her teeth together, scowling angrily. "Find shorter magic words." Reaching out with her mind, she grabbed the nearest object—which was apparently a motorcycle—and threw it with all of her mental force at Dr. Light. Without even flinching, Dr. Light raised one hand in an all-mighty fashion and blasted the bike to pieces.

Before she could regain the energy lost from using so much power in such a short burst, Dr. Light hit her again. The street was flying underneath her as she flew backwards, letting out a scream before she could stop herself. Throwing her hands out underneath her, she allowed her elbow to take on most of the impact. Her body shuddered at the force, and for a moment, her elbow was shrieking in agony, the nerves going insane with pain.

Then, nothing.

She lost her sight, the world going blank. The pain disappeared completely, replaced with a numb Novocain-like feeling. The only thing she could hear was her own thundering heart beat in her ears, incredibly loud compared to what it had sounded like before. Her shallow breaths were coming in as wrenching gasps, her chest tightening. Defensively she ducked her head and dug her fingers into the ground. Her head no longer pounded but was imploding, pain erupting from both temples again. Her gums were aching and she ran her dry tongue over the top row of her teeth. Was if her imagination once more, or did it feel as if her incisors were expanding? Her hands clenched into tight fists as she bit down on her lip.

_(Yes, Daughter. Give into your anger! Feel the rage consume you! Live it! Become what you fear the most!)_

She sensed Dr. Light step closer to her, assuming she was down for good. "Don't come any closer," she growled, trying to keep her voice from sounding too violent. But she could already hear the disturbing change in her tone. This wasn't good, not at all. She couldn't change. Not here, not now. Not in front of the Titans! In her minds eye, she could see Dr. Light sneer. "What's the matter," He challenged, "afraid of the light?"

Something in her snapped then. _Literally_. She actually heard part of her conscious mind break as she temporarily sank into insanity. She could hear her father laugh triumphantly in her head.

Throwing back her cape, a snarl ripped free from her throat. Her face twisted into an ugly grimace that was meant to strike fear into the hearts of men. The world seemed to be painted red, her vision pulsing with her heart. Slowly, she felt herself rise above the pathetic humans, five feet—ten feet—_twenty_ feet high! Her large shadow hung over Dr. Light, and he cowered helplessly. Her mouth, which contained rows of shark-like teeth, curled into the closest thing to a smile. The air around her crackled with terror. Terror from Dr. Light, the puny man who had thought that he could defeat her---the daughter of Trigon the Terrible, He who is all-powerful. Terror from her ridiculously unnecessary teammates, who didn't understand that this was what true power looked like. Terror coming from her pathetic human side which could not comprehend how glorious this form was. The primal fear that all humans contained was pouring out of everyone watching her transformation, her metamorphosis.

Yes, she truly was blessed to be Trigon's only daughter.

_(He must learn his place, Daughter. Learn that he had commited the ultimate wrong-doing by crossing paths with the likes of I. How dare he act as a better towards You?!)_

Yes…Father was right about that. How dare he make a mockery of the heir to Trigon's throne!

Dr. Light began to back away from her blindly, tripping over his own two clumsy feet. She smirked down at him—looks as if the tables have turned, yes indeed they have, who's laughing now, Light?—and almost laughed. How funny he did look, that petrified expression frozen on his pale face! His confidence had vanished at once, satisfying Raven. But did he honestly think that after disrespecting the blood of royalty, the blood of the True God of this Universe, he would get away with it with only a taste of her power? HA! She would make sure he would know his place while demonstrating what she could do to punish him for his insolence.

_(Unleash the power you have held within for so long, the rage you have suppressed for years!) _

Tentacles lashed out from under her cloak in the blink of an eye and latched onto his arms and legs, pinning him to the spot. She felt his stomach clump with horror and he screamed in defiance. Stupid, stupid man! Did he really think a mere human could outrun her?

"No! No! My suit!" He cried as Raven ripped his irritating suit to shreds in seconds. Out of pure spite, Raven decided to drag him towards her, painfully slow so that he was given the false illusion that he could escape from her grip. "What are you—?"

_(You must punish him for his ignorance!)_

She loosened her hold on him, allowing him to claw at the ground for a few seconds before yanking him harder, pain shooting up from his abdomen.

He was crying now, sniveling sobs as he shouted, "No! No! I surrender!" Raven threw back her head and let out a snarl that was supposed to come out as a laugh. This was all so hilarious! So funny! Hysterical, even! Why was it that none of her so-called friends refused to join in the happiness? The emotions coming from Dr. Light were delicious to Raven, causing her to grin. Beast Boy always begged her to smile for him, didn't he? Well, here she was—her most powerful form, smiling and laughing like there was no tomorrow. Why were they not laughing along with her as Dr. Light begged for mercy when he was causing her such merriment?

_(They do not understand why this is so enjoyable. They are simply too common to see what you and I do, Daughter. They are not of royal blood.)_

"What's the matter?" Raven laughed, waiting for her friends to burst out into hysterics. They did not. Her voice had transformed into that of her Father, resembling the voice of perfection. Who among them would not want to be honored with such a wonderful sound such as the voice of Trigon himself? "Afraid of the dark?"

"I surrender!" Dr. Light squeaked one last time before he was dragged under Raven's cloak. He was in another dimension by now, surrounded only with pure darkness. A few years in there should teach him a lesson, wouldn't it? Perhaps by then he would learn some manners, some respect for his betters, hm? She smiled again at the thought of what he would be like when she brought him back from the Twelfth Dimension of Total Blackness. He would be much quieter, of course, having probably gone insane. Sure, he would never be able to look in any remotely dark places again, but he would always remember who was in control here on Earth while Father was unable to step through the boundaries separating him and this galaxy. Every dark corner, every poorly lit room, he would know that something evil would be lurking in the shadows after him. Her canines dug into her chin and the pain felt pleasant to her. If only—

"Raven!"

Robin's voice cut through the spell that had been cast of her. Raven gasped and Fathers' influence once more disappeared to the dark corridors of her mind. The scene was no longer red, and her fangs slid back into her gums swiftly. She looked down at herself, utterly terrified. She couldn't have…this wasn't possible…after all the meditation she went through…

But she had.

Shame radiated from her being and she shuddered in disgust. Shrinking back to her regular five-foot-three stature, she shook with fear—fear of herself and what monstrosity she had become a few moments ago. Her eyes were wider than dinner plates as she soaked in the scene, memories flooding back. Clutching her chest, she started to hyperventilate. No, this just possibly couldn't be! She…she hadn't just surrendered to the darkness within her, had she? The presence of Father had been so strong, though…Ugh! She felt so dirty, so impossibly stained by his evil. Tainted. Spoiled. She wanted to bathe in Holy Water for a week just to feel clean again.

The Titans were running to her now, and she needed to calm down. Or at least keep up her apathetic front. They couldn't know how uncontrollable she was right now, how unstable she was becoming. She would be locked away forever if they knew. She glanced down and let out a deep breath to prevent herself from seeming afraid. Below her feet lay Dr. Light, curled into a ball and shuddering. His face had paled to an eggshell white, his uniform ruined beyond repair. His eyes seemed as if they were no longer seeing this world, but the darkness Raven had thrust him into. She bit her lip, feeling slightly guilty.

"It's okay," Robin soothed the criminal, resting a hand on his shaking shoulder. Starfire knelt next to him, concerned for the traumatized villains' well-being. Leave it to Starfire to care about the most annoying bad guy out there, Raven thought sarcastically, although, after what she had put Dr. Light through, he deserved it. "You're going to be alright," Robin continued, but Dr. Light ignored him.

"It was so…s-so dark!" He chattered, teeth clinking together as he rubbed his arms. "M-Make it stop! Make it stop!" He pleaded them pathetically.

"Dude, Raven, what did you do?" Beast Boy questioned, reaching for her. Raven wanted to shrug him away but anger clouded her brain for no reason. She could sense how frightened he was of her. The last thing he wanted to do was to touch a freak like her, a monster like her. He wasn't sure if she was going to try to get him next. She knew he wanted to think that everyone had just imagined what had happened, as Raven wanted as well, but the shell of Dr. Light huddled beneath them was proof enough that it hadn't been some twisted nightmare. He was confused by her actions, not understanding the change had been involuntary. Beast Boy believed she had tried to kill Dr. Light purposely. The fact that he thought she would truly try to murder someone was enough to make Raven growl with anger. He didn't know anything about her! Twisting around, Raven hissed like a Cobra, eyes burning red.

Beast Boy let out a womanish scream and leaped back, wind milling his arms as he tried to stay balanced. He lifted a leg in defense and his hands rose to cover his face incase she decided to claw out his eyes, or something ridiculous like that. His eyes were glued shut, fear blinding him. When he finally squeezed one eye open, darting from left to right as to assure himself she hadn't dumped him in another dimension, she was frozen. She had hissed at him, a fellow Titan. Of course she wanted to kill him at times—she wanted to with all of the Titans—but she had never wanted to unleash her evil essence on any of them! And Beast Boy, oh, he must hate her now! The very thought of his hatred directed at her made Raven's cheeks catch fire. She ducked her head and shoved past the two boys.

Mortified, Raven hunched her shoulders and hurried down a dark alley way where she phased back to the tower. A black raven encased her within its wings, but not fast enough to keep her from hearing Beast Boy demand, "What's her deal?" to Cyborg.

She looked down and was smothered with dark energy before appearing in her room up in Titans Tower.

How could she lose herself so terribly that she would _hiss_ at Beast Boy? She covered her face and moaned loudly, not caring if the Titans had already made it home and would hear her. She was humiliated, ashamed, terrified. Her own body didn't even belong to her anymore! What was she going to do now that the Titans knew what evil lay undisturbed beneath her Goth-girl exterior?

Raven quickly grabbed her Meditation Mirror. It was small, with a long handle that was made of an extremely old-looking wood that curled in knots at places. Small rubies decorated the mirror's glass. Unlike the hand-held mirrors many teenage girls her age were in possession of—Starfire owning at least five, if Raven could remember correctly—this mirror was incredibly dangerous, to both Raven and whoever wished to use it. Unlike normal hand-held mirrors, this specific one was something Azar herself had handed down to Raven to control her Dark Side, the side of her that was tainted by Fathers' blood. Unlike other mirrors, it would allow her to communicate with different parts of personality, different emotions in her mind, and would enable her to reprimand them if they acted out of the norm.

Tonight would be one of the nights she would need to scold one of them.

She needed to figure out what had happened, what had caused her to snap like that. Closing her eyes, she muttered the magic words that would transport her out of her room and into her mind. Her hair whipped around her head wildly, her cloak snapping in the sudden whirlwind. Staying calm, she exhaled slowly out of her nose and let all thought empty from her mind.

She opened her eyes and found herself in the Central Plain, the main area of her subconscious. It was a field that stretched out as far as the eye could see, bear of anything except for the deep purple grass and tall, oak-like trees with pale leaves. The sky was a dark blue that matched the color of her cloak, hazy clouds blocking out the sun that never showed its face. But instead of a pleasant breeze that swirled her hair, the air seemed thick with hatred. Something was terribly wrong here.

Raven began to walk, passing a tree with two ravens chirping happily. The sight of them made her skin crawl and she kept her eyes straight ahead. She looked around, searching for something—her emotions, to be exact. In order to communicate with them, specific parts of her personality took on the form of the half-demon. Each one contained an ability that she had either learned to control of refused to use. Now if only she could find her most clever emotion, Wisdom.

Raven squinted, spotting a blurry figure in the distance. Was it her imagination, or was the figure floating? Taking a few steps further, she decided that she had located the emotion she had been looking for. She jogged over to the clone, which was facing the opposite direction. Just as Raven, she had violet hair and the exact same outer appearance—all for the chocolate-brown leotard and cloak she wore. Currently her eyes were closed and her face was relaxed; her legs were crossed and she floated five feet above the ground; her hood was down, revealing a mirror image of Raven's own face; and her hands were hanging off of her knees, the thumb and pointer fingers pressed together as she meditated. Raven cleared her throat loudly and the brown-cloaked emotion—Wisdom—opened one eye, unsurprised.

"I've been expecting you, Raven," she said in a perfectly soothed voice. Raven didn't blink at the fact that Wisdom had known she was coming. Her special ability was seeing into the future, after all. Wisdom closed her eyes again and went on floating for a few moments, before speaking: "Now what would you like to inform me of that I am not already aware of?" This time Raven crinkled her nose; Wisdom was also incredibly irritating to deal with. She spoke in riddles that made no sense whatsoever, and no matter how hard Raven pleaded, she would never divulge in any secrets of the future. She said it would be unfair to cheat Raven of all the experiences she would live through. Ha!

"I'm confused," Raven started slowly, to which Wisdom cut in without even looking at her.

"You are confused because you don't know what's happening to you. You are unsure if the bond between you and Father is becoming stronger now that you are slipping and showing more emotions—"

"Slipping? I'll have you know that no such thing has—" Raven interrupted hotly, but Wisdom ignored her.

"You are afraid, as well, as much as you hate to show weakness. You are afraid of transforming like tonight again, of becoming Father and surrendering to the Dark Side of your body. But you also fear what your friends think of you now that they have seen the true you. You fear being isolated even further, being left alone again, like you were in Azar. You don't wish to be treated so lowly again, to be cast aside like trash—"

"I have never cared what those disgusting brats did to me in Azar! I was able to depend on myself to—"

"You fear what they will say, how they will react, what they will do, how they will treat you." She opened her eyes and observed Raven before adding, "And above all else, you fear one Titans reaction the most. You don't care to even say it out loud, but you are most afraid of Beast Boy leaving you because he now knows who you really are."

Raven's expression was fierce, angry that Wisdom had known exactly what had been going through her mind at the time, and her mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air, trying to think of how to respond. She felt her cheeks sting with blood at the last completely true statement Wisdom had said to her, leaving her utterly humiliated. There, it was out in the open now. She didn't care if it was said in her mind or not, she had heard the words spoken aloud. She was absolutely terrified of being left alone by all of her "friends." Even if Beast Boy hated her, and she him, there was no denying that if he left her, she would have no one at all to fight with.

"Have I guessed correctly?"

Raven's eyebrows furrowed together like black caterpillars crawling on her face. "But what is going on? What have I become now that Father has fully influenced me? Am I going to become Father and destroy this planet, as I was destined to do?" Raven spoke quickly, running a hand through her hair in deep thought. It was sweaty and knotted, like short threads of purple yarn. This was terrible. If Father really had managed to find away to break free from the chains she had sealed her anger under, what would become of her home? The Titans, and all the other humans she had ever come in contact with would surely perish.

Starfire, Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy…Her throat closed at the thought of actually killing the only people she had ever even been remotely close to. While they were not best friends, they were a group of people that understood the struggles that had become her life. They shared similar experiences of pain and loss, of grief and fear. They saved her from herself when she needed kindness the most, although she refused to return it at times. They were the only thing she could call a family since leaving Azar...nay, since she had first been able to walk.

"Raven," Wisdom said, uncrossing her legs and getting to her feet. She placed her hands on Raven's shoulders, forcing Raven to meet her stare. "Something has been freed in you mind. You must remember that only you can fight off Father's influence." Raven's chest constricted in fear, not caring that Wisdom would be able to sense it.

"So it is true that Father has escaped! Oh, Goddess!" Raven moaned. She shut her eyes and exhaled sharply. She almost started crying, which in itself was pathetic. If she was to battle with Father himself, then she must be stronger than that of a sniveling school girl. She could not be a weakling who cried at the thought of bad news, be it as trivial as a bad haircut, or as deadly as the most bloodthirsty of all Demons freeing unleashing himself upon this world. _Toughen up and stop with these thought of crying_! She spat at herself. Wisdom squeezed her shoulders before finishing her thought.

"You must rest, child. Your mind is no longer a safe place for you to be. If you were to meet Anger now…well, it would not be the best of times to run into her. I wish I could tell you it will all be okay—"

"So why don't you?" Raven asked icily, trying to shrug Wisdom's hands off, but all she had managed was to squirm under Wisdom's iron-grip. "You know what will happen to me, and this is a matter of life or death. Just a glimpse at what will happen surely will not affect the future!" Wisdom shook her head, dropping her hands from Raven's shoulders, letting them fall to her sides. Ravens breathing was beginning to come in quicker and she struggled to slow it. She could see her own frantic reflection in Wisdom's eyes. She was a mess, a disgrace! How could she have let herself fall to pieces like this?

"You know as well as I do that I am not able to inform you of the future. I cannot interfere with actions that have yet to happen, or tamper with the events that would cause such things. I have to allow you to live these situations, Raven. I plead you to be strong now."

"Wisdom, you must," Raven insisted, clasping her hands together. Begging was something she never deemed needed, but now she lost her sense of dignity. If only Wisdom would give her a peek at the future, to reassure her, to soothe her worries…She needed to know if she would have to leave. Yes, it would be better for everyone if she left in case she was to snap. Wisdom sighed.

"I will tell you one, and only one thing, and I will say this only once," Wisdom warned. Raven almost smiled at her words, but nodded nonetheless. Wisdom looked up at the sky, which was becoming even cloudier, and said to the heavens, "You shall not worry, Raven. No harm will come to the Titans by your hand, nor Fathers. Now, you must leave at once, and may peace grace your presence." Thanking her, Raven turned on her heels and summoned her powers to leave. As the last wisps of the black energy that had engulfed Raven disappeared, Wisdom pinched the bridge of her nose. A raven cawed in the distance. The sky grew darker, and the wind became more vicious. Anger was growing stronger by the second.

She should not have lied to Raven, but it was the only thing she could do. And she had only soothed her fears, she hadn't given Raven her entire future. But lying had been something that Honesty would scold her about, although Wisdom knew it was the right thing to do. How easy it was, she thought, to help one by telling them exactly what they wanted to hear.

---

Raven opened her eyes and she was standing in the center of her room back in Titans Tower. Without even thinking of her actions, she staggered over to her bed. Traveling to her mind always took so much energy out of her, leaving her drained. Raven's head hit the pillow and before she lost consciousness, she silently agreed with Wisdom. She had been, above all the other facts, right about one thing for sure: Raven didn't know what she would do without Beast Boy.

She blacked out, completely dead to the world.

---

Raven woke that morning similar to those belonging to the undead family lore. Her curtains were thrown closed, keeping the room bathed in a shady light. Her statues mocked her, their weeping faces, scornful at her distress. She groaned and rubbed her head, which had the faint reminder of the migraine she had suffered last night. She twisted into a sitting position and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and adjusted the blanket that had contorted around her body. Another nightmare once she had fallen asleep—with her uniform still on, she noticed with distaste. Her mouth was filled with the horrid taste one gets in the morning, making her nose crinkle. Her eyes were blurry and she yawned half-heartedly while rubbing them clear. Running her fingers through her hair, she combed through it until it resembled something decent. Then she lifted the covers of her bed and swung her legs over the edge. Her booted feet hit the floor with a soft thump. She glanced around the room nervously, suddenly feeling watched.

Her window; was someone looking in? No, it couldn't be, since she had her curtains closed. Her door wasn't open, was it? She turned her head to check if she had somehow left her door open, but she stopped once her eyes landed on her hand carved dresser. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she was positive then that whatever was causing this feeling was coming from that area. Passing over her meditation mirror, along with her full body mirror that had a crack running down the center—she would fix that in a moment—she met the beady gaze of a giant, stuffed poultry sitting atop it.

Its black eyes stared at her lifelessly, causing her to frown at it. Who would have thought Raven The Fearless would be creeped out by a stuffed animal her not-friend Beast Boy had given her so long ago. Standing up and smoothing out her uniform, attempting to cover all of the creases and wrinkles in her cloak, she wondered why she still kept the damned thing. It wasn't because it was any kind of adorable, like most fluff-filled toys. The chicken looked as if it had been through hell and back. And it couldn't have been because she felt that it meant something to her. It was just a stupid chicken stupid Beast Boy had stupidly given her at that stupid fair. There was no sentimental value in it. Nothing that idiot Beast Boy could do for her or give her would ever hold some form of importance towards her. So why?

Well, she just didn't want to pollute the outside world with its ugliness.

Shoulders hunched, Raven shuffled quietly over to the dresser and glared at the chicken accusingly. Grabbing it by its head, she squeezed its non-existent skull and hid it in her closet where she couldn't look at it---or vice versa. The feeling of persecution faded a bit, and Raven relaxed. Activating her powers, she made the crack going through her mirror disappear. Ms. Fixit, she thought blandly. She puffed out her cheeks and immaturely made a face at her reflection. On an average day, she would dislike how regular she looked. But she wasn't sure she was exactly average after last night. Now, she was overjoyed that she hadn't grown horns overnight or grown an extra pair of eyes. The last thing she needed was a permanent change to her already scary appearance.

_They must be so horrified._

Raven cringed at the thought of how her friends would react when she entered the main room for breakfast. Scream? Run for the hills? Kick her out of the Titans? The possibilities were endless for her. Would Cyborg perform tests on her to find out what was wrong, strapping her down to one of those painfully cold metal tables in a straight jacket? Would Robin force her to fight, challenging her and locking her away in jail for the rest of her life---and if she _were_ to fight with Robin, Starfire would definitely aide him, and her superhuman strength would be a problem. And Beast Boy—she groaned inwardly.

What _could_ he do? He already stayed as far as he could from her. He already had an ever-constant fear of her demon-side and possibly her human-side, as well. He already called her a freak. He already annoyed her every single day. What was the worst he could do that he hadn't already done?

He could ignore her. He could never speak with her again. He could make her feel like the outsider she knew she was. As irritating as it was to admit it, Raven wouldn't be able to have a normal day without his jibes and random conversations. He was the one thing in her life that she knew would never change—be it because he would never mature or anything else. He was a necessity in her life, although no one would ever hear her say that. And then, of course, there was the whole "I'm-destined-for-you-you're-my-soulmate" thing that connected them, too...

She had to go outside, though. She couldn't hide in her room forever, as appealing as that sounded. Squaring her shoulders, she stepped out of her room and into the hallway, where she was weak and defenseless. A duck in a free hunting zone. She looked left, then right, and was happy to find that no one was bounding down the corridors to tackle her to the floor. Slowly creeping towards the bathroom, she shut the door gently and brushed her teeth. So far, so good. Wiping her mouth, she thought about telling the Titans that something had gotten loose in her mind. Immediately she tossed the thought away. It would be unacceptable to let them know what kind of condition she was in now. She was afraid of leaving, of being deserted once more. The thought of never seeing her friends again—even Beast Boy, she added reluctantly—was terrifying. Especially Beast Boy.

Her stomach grumbled and she gloomily started down the stairs. Her feet sounded too loud as she clunked down to the main room for breakfast.

_Clunk!_ She started taking deep breathes to keep from hyperventilating.

_Clomp!_ Her vision swam and she shook her head to clear it.

_Clunk!_ The end of the stairway was visible now and she almost went cross-eyed thinking so hard.

_Clomp!_ Were they going to get rid of her? Would they hate her? Was she the new enemy of the Titans, the closest thing she had to a family?

_I can't do this._

A hand on her heart, which was beating at an unnaturally fast rate, she stopped in front of the door to the main room. Staring at the cold, metal doors, she hesitated from pressing her weight on the floor to activate them. She was being irrational, stupid, and cowardly. She should just get things over with and enter the _Goddess forsaken room already!_ But her feet were frozen to the ground, her arms and legs stiff, and her stomach was clenched. Facing the Titans seemed like impossibility to her at the moment. The looks they would give her, glaring at her scornfully; the whispers about her that would go on behind her back; the cruel things they would say to her face; the things they would throw at her.

Dear Azar, it would be like living in Azarath all over again. She tried to regain a regular breathing cycle. These were her teammates, damn it! They wouldn't make her relive her childhood because of this! Letting out a long breath, Raven tentatively reached out with her mind, tasting their emotions. They did not seem angry, or upset. In fact, the dirt-like taste of worry assaulted her. Worry for her well-being. She cleared her mind, realizing that the Titans would not jump from their seats and attack her right away if she entered for breakfast. Yet.

Shoulders back, head down, Raven tapped her foot to activate the automatic door.

The swish was heard and, self-conscious, she made sure her eyes were on her feet. The room reeked of tofu-eggs, making her assume Beast Boy had cooked breakfast. All conversation that had been going on was silent. Raven could sense four pairs of eyes land on her, and she fought back the urge to blush. All the attention they were paying her in this short moment was too much for her. They always ignored her when she entered the room? Why would they give her any mind now? These thoughts were too much for her, in this confused state!

Dizzy, Raven made her way past the Titans, sparing them only one fleeting glance; Goddess forbid she met one of their stares. She saw that Robin was watching her intently, spoon and cup in hand, a plate of eggs left untouched in front of him; Stafire was in a similar position next to him, but her gaze was more worried and confused than anyone else's;  
Cyborg sat at the far end of the table, his plate and cup mysteriously empty. And, although he tried to seem discreet about it, Beast Boy was also obviously watching her as he stood over Cyborg, arms crossed. Strangely, his anger at something Cyborg had done melted away quickly once he spotted her. He sniffed the air, curious, and his left ear twitched.

"Hey…Raven." It was Robin's voice, hesitant as though he wasn't sure what to make of her. "Want breakfast?" Raven planned on ignoring them, but then Beast Boy joined in, cornering her by following the demon-girl to the island in the kitchen. "It's good!" He agreed in a sing-song voice, waving the plate of tofu-eggs behind her head. Raven pretended that she couldn't hear him, instead choosing to pour herself a nice coup of tea. It would soothe her head, which was starting to pound again. Her chest felt congested, almost burning, but she ignored it. She was probably exhausted from last night. Without realizing it, her mind jumped to wondering what it would be like to bite into the flesh of one of her teammates. Not a gigantic chomp, but a generous nibble or so. Just the thought of it caused her salivary glands to work overdrive and she concentrated on ignoring the fact. But Beast Boy would not leave well-enough alone when he was given the option. "Wakey-wakey, tofu-eggs-n'-bakey!"

"Herbal, tea," Raven told him slowly, not bothering to turn and look him in the eyes. Her headache continued to grow worse, and she took a sip of tea. She nearly flinched, the scolding-hot liquid burning her tongue. It stung down her throat, doing the opposite of what she intended it to do to her head.

"C'mon, just one little taste," Beast Boy begged. Raven's vision swarmed, her heart jumping into action as it pumped double-time. Her throat started to close up and she gulped in large amount of air. No. Something bad was going to happen. "You could use a little food after the way you cooked Dr. Light—"

"NO!" Raven roared back at him, losing her temper. Her chest was on fire. Beast Boy's normally green skin looked a strange brown color in her red-tinted vision. Fear rolled off of him in waves, like battery acid that stung at her tongue. She her lip curled up, the urge to bite his head off nudging at her mind. _God, is she going to snap again?! _Raven heard him think as she lost control of her mind-reading abilities. He thought she was going to go insane again? How _dare_ he believe she would give in so easily! _Is she going to hurt me?_ Did he know her at all? How could he even think something as ludicrous as this!Oh, if he wanted to think things such as this, then fine! She'd give him something to yell over, alright. Mentally pushing upward with her mind, she caused his plate of tofu-eggs to explode.

But, oh, not just a small explosion; all the contents in the plate seemed to flow heavenward in an endless torrent directed at his surprised face. When it finally ended, tofu-eggs clung to his face, clothing, and hair. Raven's vision melted back to normal and she heard a strange noise escape Beast Boy before he dropped the plate with a clang. An egg fell from the tip of his hair and onto the floor, something she saw with such vivid sight that she could have laughed. What a strange thing to notice at this time.

Raven glanced around, secretly appalled. None of the Titans would look her way, instead opting to pretend they didn't even notice her breakfast-time-battle. Except for Beast Boy, who was glaring daggers at her, they were ignoring the fact completely. She looked back at Beast Boy and saw pure anger on his face, the taste seeping from his very core. For some odd reason, she wanted to blush, then she wanted to cry, and then she wanted to scream, and then she wanted to run—all at the same time. She decided to follow her most basic instinct: hide. Her cape swirled around her as she twisted sideways violently, hoping to hurt herself in the process, and as she stormed out of the room, silent. It felt as if the entire room had died.

Raven felt his anger grow slowly, like a snowball rolling down a mountain during December. It seemed unstoppable at this point. She could sense his eyes bore into her back, and it felt as if he was burning a hole straight through her. She felt actual, physical pain at the thought of how angry he was with her. It made her sick to her stomach. The last thing she heard was Beast Boy spit the words mentally at her, _fucking freak._

The door closed behind her, and Raven sighed with relief. She had never been so happy to be away from a group of people like she was right now. She couldn't face any of them now. Not only had she gone fully demon in front of the Titans last night, but she had acted out again a few minutes ago. She had to make sure she wouldn't have another lethal temper-tantrum. She slid against the wall, woozy. Her legs were shaking too much for her to stand on them. Her head no longer hurt her, but she didn't feel…right. Like she was standing upside-down—or was it downside-up? She couldn't remember exactly.

Hah, was the room was spinning, or was it just her imagination? Suddenly she pictured the look on Beast Boy's face when he had first realized what had happened to his breakfast. His eyebrows had shot up so far up his face; and that noise he had made! It sounded so funny! Raven let out an unholy giggle, a smile creeping up so far across her face that it was about to crack in half. She covered her mouth with her hand in an attempt to stop the laughter. Tears began to cloud her vision, rolling down her cheeks. Her eyes darted around as if someone would be watching her. Then she gasped and looked around before disappearing down the hallway.

She needed to be alone before something bad happened.

---

Raven flinched, visibly disturbed. Her eyes squeezed shut tighter by reflex before she relaxed once again. The lavender-haired teenager had stowed away on the roof, her second favorite meditation place (if it was uninhibited, of course.) Watching the sea was soothing from atop the Tower, and even on the be-loathed sunny days Raven had to suffer through, it was a wonderful place to curl up with a book. Sunsets were her choice of time to escape to the roof when she couldn't go to her room. Right now, Raven wasn't sure if it would be wise to keep herself stuck in such a closed space. In case her powers struggled free, and the entire left wing of the Tower was to blow up…Well, it wasn't the best of places for her at the moment.

She had been in such deep meditation, concentrating on her inner core to calm her mind, that she had been dead to the world for almost an hour. But now it felt as if there was a strange presence inside of her. No, make that multiple presences. She had been so surprised by this that she had been dragged out of meditation. Well, this was ridiculous. She had to continue to meditate, lest anything worse happen to her teammates.

"Raven," she heard Robin call from behind. She tried to keep her eyes shut and block out any excess noise, but of course he had to keep going. And Starfire was there as well, creeping up along behind her beside Robin. Oh, why did they have to annoy her? It would be so much easier to wallow in self-depression if only they would stop bothering her! "We went to your room and the door was knocked down…" Robin started. Something tickled her ribs, and Raven bit down on her lip. No, she needed to concentrate on what he was saying. The door? That was odd…why on Earth would her door have fallen down? Unless, of course, someone had broken in. But what idiot would even try to—

_Goddess no, he didn't!_

"…Is everything okay?" Robin asked, curiosity overflowing. The tickling sensation below her ribs was getting stronger, a feeling similar to that of being prodded now. Taking in a sharp breath, trying to prevent herself form letting out a chuckle, Raven instead burst out into laughter. Loud, joyous laughter that seemed to come from another entity altogether. It was such a wonderful noise that it pleased her ears, and she almost wished that the sound would not stop. But when she realized that it was coming from _her_ fear gripped her belly. Raven felt her lungs cry out for oxygen, and when she gasped to inhale, she quickly cut short her mirth. Her eyes wide, she stared at her open hands, searching for the answer of her strange behavior. This…this had never happened before! She had never been so reckless with her emotions before! She turned around slowly, taking in every molecule around her. Starfire and Robin had flung themselves backwards, arms shielding their faces. They had been, for that split second, scared out of their minds. Raven blinked, coming to her senses at last.

"I need to be alone," she grunted, heaving herself off the floor and floating towards the exit downstairs. She could only hear an unimportant fragment of the conversation Starfire was beginning with Robin before she was out of earshot, but Raven was positive it was about her outburst. _How humiliating!_ She scolded herself. _How you let yourself explode like that? Disgusting!_ But, Raven countered as she rocketed down the stairs and turned the corner to enter the halls, there was something strange going on. Now that she was up and running, she was sure that there was another presence she was sensing near her. Within her, to be specific.

She drew near the entrance to her room, finding that Robin had been right when he had told her that the door had been knocked down. The cold block of metal lay helplessly on the floor, blasted clear off of its hinges. She frowned. Oh, she was going to kill that moron for this! If only he was still alive, that is! Using her powers as she bristled past, Raven picked the door off from the floor and secured it back on its hinges. She looked around her room, relieved that (so far) nothing had been pillaged and/or stolen. Her bed was still made, her bookcase hadn't been rearranged, her cloaks hadn't been tried on, her drawers hadn't been rifled through—

But her Meditation Mirror was lying face down on the floor.

Raven felt her eyes widen with shock. Vaguely, she could feel her face form the word, "No…," a whisper barely escaping her lips. That idiot! He hadn't just rummaged through her room! He was running wild in her _mind!_ Beast Boy must have gone to her room to finish her off, most likely rant about what a jerk she had been this morning and "accidentally" broken down the door. The nosey fool that he was, he had gone into her room to search through her things. He had come across her mirror and… She rubbed her temples.

And then what? The only way someone could have entered her mind was if they too had psychic powers. And Beast Boy definitely did not posses psychic powers; he struggled to even have a regular mental ability, let alone have the intellect to master that of her type of abilities. It wouldn't explain the second presence in her mind, as well. Whatever had happened, she needed to drag that moron out before he blew up her brain. Or triggered something yet again.

Or worse, stumbled upon something he shouldn't have. Raven harbored many dark secrets, many being about her past. She had seen so much death and destruction during her sixteen years that it would be enough to send him to tears. There were things she knew that no one else should have to carry the burden of. Things in her mind that mortals shouldn't even know existed. Her mind was a twisted, horrifying rollercoaster ride. If Beast Boy was to learn about her true history, her linage…It would be ten times as horrible as she had thought it would be this morning.

Hurrying herself, Raven forced herself into her mind. Instead of appearing calmly in the Central Plain, she found herself free-falling out f the sky. Her cloak flapped loudly around her, snapping in the wind. Raven's stomach dropped as her mouth went dry. This was not how things were supposed to go! She was supposed to enter her mind, drag out Beast Boy and the mystery presence, and beat them both within an inch of their pathetic lives. Cutting her fall was the ground, knocking the wind out of her body. Her lungs buckled once her back connected with stone ground, and the world appeared to shake violently before stilling once more. Raven sucked in air and rubbed her sore head, opening her eyes.

She looked around and found herself lying on a meteor floating in the middle of an empty, black void. As far as the eye could see, there were giant chunks of rocks everywhere, islands in the sea of darkness. The sky was dotted with smoldering red stars that shone angrily back down. Trees, willowed and dehydrated, were bent over like hunched old men, theirs branches bare. All around, Raven was receiving an evil chill in the very air. Groaning, she stood on her feet and saw that she was staring a leather-bound book titled "Latest Memories" in the face—err, spine. She blinked and looked for the owner. None other then Knowledge, her yellow-clad emotion, was holding the book, hovering in the air with legs crossed. Her hood was up, but the horn-rimmed glasses perched on her nose were unmistakable. Surrounding Knowledge were novels and random papers, books and pamphlets—anything with runes or symbols carved onto the surface.

"Knowledge," Raven spoke clearly, fixing her cloak. Said emotion yelped, dropping the book and crashing to the floor. Loose papers fluttered around her like butterflies. Her glasses flew right off her face, landing a foot away from her. Scurrying like a mouse, Knowledge squinted and felt around for her glasses, blind without them. Raven rolled her eyes and waited until Knowledge was ready for her.

Knowledge was one of the only emotions Raven felt she could deal with without going insane, mainly because she was the smartest, and the most organized. She was the brains of the operations, the brilliance and skills. She was in charge of all memories and new information. A librarian, if you will. She was able to keep track of all the things Raven didn't have the time to commit to memory—the weather the day of her birth, the amount of breathes she took in every day, her heart rate—useless things like that. But she was easy to catch off guard, usually found with her nose buried in a book. As Knowledge brushed herself off, Raven nudged the book she had been reading with her foot. So that they would be stored easily, Knowledge took it upon herself to put all memories and other things in the form of books, complete with titles and labels.

"R-R-R-R-Raven!" Knowledge stuttered, flustered, as she grabbed papers around her. "It is always a pleasure to have you visit! I am so sorry about the mess, though! After Anger took over, well---" She flapped her arms around, nervous. Raven sighed, noticing that her glasses were askew. She had suspected this would happen; while Knowledge was the brilliant one, she was a complete spaz because of all the stress.

"It's alright, Knowledge," Raven soothed, kneeling down to pick the book up. The page the book had flipped open to be the image of Beast Boy, glaring at Raven's back with such an intense hatred that Raven could almost taste it. She swallowed and handed it back to Knowledge, who clutched the book to her chest like a schoolgirl.

"Oh, th-th-th-thank you, Raven!" Knowledge said happily, sliding her glasses up her nose with one free hand. "I think that you are curious of what might have happened here, no?" Raven nodded and asked Knowledge if she could explain what had happened. Twittering, Knowledge scrambled to find the right book before affirming it would show Raven what had transpired here in Nevermore.

Flipping through the pages Knowledge recited, "Anger has stored enough pent-up energy to break free from the chains you put her under. As the emotion influenced more by Trigon than any other, Anger willingly tried to force you into your demonic state. When Beast Boy irritated you this morning, Anger took advantage of that and affected your mood even more drastically than average." She stopped to wipe her glasses before continuing. "Cyborg had brought Beast Boy to apologize, and they entered your room in search of you. Thinking Beast Boy was you, Anger dragged him into Nevermore; apparently, he brought Cyborg with him. They were with Happy at one point, but now they're separated at the moment. Does that help you, Raven?" Knowledge asked.

Raven moaned and smacked her forehead. Great, so Cyborg was poking around in her mind as well? This was _not_ her week, was it? "Can you at least tell me where they are, Knowledge?" Raven inquired, and Knowledge eagerly nodded her head; she enjoyed finding things. Knowledge disappeared among the float volumes of books, in search of the right one. Not a minute later, she reappeared, lugging a velvet-covered book with her. She grunted and heaved, her grip failing when she dropped it onto the ground in front of her. Huffing, she blew a stray strand of hair from her face and pushed her glasses firmly up the bridge of her nose. "H-Here it is," she announced. Throwing the cover open, she flipped through pages until she came across a moving image of Cyborg, sitting next to an orange-clad Raven, whom was picking her nose.

Scrunching her nose in disgust, Raven asked critically, "The Book of Scrying?" Knowledge nodded.

"Yes, it is one of the books I consult with the most. It is my favorable ability, no?" Knowledge asked, raising an eye brow and giving her a sly smile. Raven jerked her head curtly in response. While Knowledge's special ability was that to Scry, Raven herself had never gotten the hang of the talent. "So if Cyborg is with Crass…Where is Beast Boy?"

Valiantly, Knowledge focused her energy onto Beast Boy's being and flicked through what looked like hundreds of pages until she found him. The green changeling was walking around, alone, in Happy's territory—sulking from the look of things. "I should pick them up now," Raven informed Knowledge, throwing her hood up. Startled, Knowledge stared up at her. "Do not harm them, Raven! It was not any fault of theirs for coming to Nevermore!"

Raven stopped, and looked back over her shoulder. "Those idiots shouldn't have come to my room, and that's enough to get them murdered. If I don't get to them first, I'm sure Anger will do something much worse." And with that, she was gone from sight. Knowledge sighed, exhausted by the entire hullabaloo. She glanced at the change of scenery in The Book of Scrying and her eyes widened considerably.

"Oh…" she muttered, picking the book up to get a closer look. A blush spread across her cheekbone when she saw the situation, her glasses falling down to the tip of her nose. She was too surprised to push them back up. "Oh, my Goddess…" She looked up to alert Raven but she was no longer there.

---

Raven stormed over to Crass, who was busily showing Cyborg how to burp the alphabet. The two had started walking through Crass' realm, talking and doing who-knew-what. "Cyborg!" Raven hissed, and the metallic man turned to face her right before Crass could reach 'r'.

"Raven," he said, surprised to see her. His expression became confused and he looked from Crass to Raven, from Raven to Crass, and repeated the process several times. "How—what—who—How are you Raven…" he asked, pointing one finger at Crass, "…If this is Raven?" he finished, crossing his arms and pointing the other finger at the blue-cloaked empathy. He groaned, rubbing his head. "Why am I so confused?"

"I'dunno Tin Man," Crass answered simply, walking back to the two Titans. On her way, she lazily strolled past a cluster of gnarled tree roots. Without even looking down with her half-lidded eyes, she jumped over them—but her feet did not land on the floor once she went into the air. "Monkey shit!" She cussed, kicking her feet in a vane attempt to reach the ground. She looked over to the Titans helplessly, who stared back at her in wonder. Raven smirked, obviously happy that her ruder side was cursed with the inability to control her levitation skills. "Can one of you dumbshits help me down?" Cyborg went to grab her hand when Raven cringed. "I…wouldn't touch her hands, if I were you," she advised. Cyborg cried out in disgust, jumping backwards. "Ah, you pussy!" Crass taunted, crossing her arms and pouting that she was stuck in the air.

"Raven, err, whoever you are…what is going _on_ here?" Explaining quickly, Raven explained the situation they were in. She told him that Beast Boy had gotten the two stuck in her Meditation Mirror, which she used to contact her emotions. She told him that the Pink Raven they had seen earlier was named Happy, and the Orange Raven he had been traveling with was named Crass—somehow he was unsurprised by both statements. "I can imagine BB dragging us into your mind by accident," he rolled his eyes. Then he smiled, jerking a thumb in Crass' direction. "And she seemed a little to gross to be you," Cyborg laughed.

"I can still hear you, ya know!" Crass grumbled, though not offended. The terms "gross" were considered compliments to her, but she knew that others viewed those magnificent choice words negatively.

"We should get Beast Boy," Cyborg said, and Raven informed him that Beast Boy was still somewhere in Happy's realm. "At least he'll be easy to locate," he added graciously. Raven cracked her knuckles.

"Just wait until I get my hands on him," she muttered darkly, and Cyborg burst into laughter. The two Titans had begun walking, for almost five minutes, into Happy's realm.

"Easy there, Raven! He was just—hey, is that him over there?" Cyborg pointed over to a hill, his real eye squinting to see while his mechanical eye zoomed in closer. "Yeah! I can see BB, but who's that with him?" Raven's chest froze.

"What color is she wearing?" she asked, keeping her voice monotone despite the nervous feeling in her stomach. Purple, she heard Cyborg tell her. A moment of tunnel vision overcame her, the world darkening for a second before flickering back into existence. She swayed on her feet, her blood going cold. Cyborg gave her a questioning look and she steeled herself, stopping her momentary weakness. "Affection," she murmured, spotting the two. She squinted. Was Affection…sitting on Beast Boy?

"_Affection!"_ she repeated louder, breaking out into a sprint. Cyborg followed suit, running behind her, the weeds beneath his cybernetic boots crushed as he stomped down onto the ground. Amazingly, in Happy's realm, the grass had remained, instead of disappearing and turning into a crater like the rest of her mind. The sky was pink, with cotton candy clouds. Raven could see the two clearly now; Affection had her body positioned so that she had both legs on either side of his body, her arms thrown over his shoulders. She was kissing Beast Boy, who was propped up on his elbows, head thrown back in ecstasy. His uniform shirt was unzipped, revealing his chest and part of his stomach. His green face was splotched with red patches everywhere, his hair ruffled by a breeze. Waves of love came rolling off of his body, so powerful that it could have thrown Raven back a step or two. But it was artificial, she knew. Just Affection and her tricks.

"I—I—" Raven could hear Beast Boy stutter. He couldn't be enjoying this, could he? That was impossible! It had to be Affection toying with his emotions, as she would with anyone else! But…she could not sense any of her magic in Beast Boy. Worse yet, she could tell that Affection was not falsely acting.

"AFFECTION!" Raven roared, angry beyond relief, but also tremendously embarrassed. All feelings of love and tenderness ended at the sound of her voice. Beast Boy gasped sharply, retaining his normal sense of balance and falling backwards. His eyes flew open and he pathetically looked up at Raven, his face in shock when he saw that not only she, but Cyborg, had seen enough to hang over his head for the rest of his life. While Cyborg was unexplainably bemused by the sight, Raven was outraged. Beast Boy hadn't just been making out with a girl in her mind—he had been making out with _her!_ Humiliated, Beast Boy turned his head, guilty now, but also strangely relieved by something. Raven crossed her arms, her eyes unintentionally setting themselves to the angriest glare she could muster.

"Let me have my fun," Affection pouted, fixing her position so that she was pinning Beast Boy to the floor. Beast Boy's face colored completely crimson and his eyes darted around for help. "It's not like anyone ever comes to drop by," Affection sighed dramatically. Her hand found its way in his hair, playing with an emerald strand innocently enough. But nothing Affection _ever_ did was innocent. She was the "slut" of all the emotions. She expressed love, affection, tenderness, lust—all of Raven's teenage hormones, embodied. She was the seductress, the one that could tempt every man with testicles in a five-mile radius with a sultry smile and a shift of her legs. She was everything that Raven hated about the female race.

"So help me Azar—" Raven prayed to the Goddess for the will to deal with such nonsense now. "Step away from the shirtless green boy, now!" the enraged sorceress ordered. Her face scrunched up in obvious rage, her eyes flaming. She felt as if she could shoot lasers from her pupils with just a thought; perhaps melt that troublesome Affection into a puddle of sex—but even in that state, Affection would be able to enchant any man.

"You ruin everything!" Affection whined like a five-year-old, but figuring that Raven was not in the mood to handle her erotic behavior, she rolled off of Beast Boy and stood on her feet, standing so that she was leaning all of her weight on one leg, her arms crossed over her chest in a way that drew attention to her breasts. She looked over a Beast Boy to see if he was watching, but he was too shocked to ever notice. Oh, she was one evil little succubus! "I can't do anything around here!" She groaned, stomping her foot immaturely. Beast Boy then leapt up and fumbled to zip his shirt up. Raven tried to ignore the way his chest looked so defined, the way his stomach looked so well toned…

"Raven, I—"

The empathy held up a hand to silence him, and he immediately shut himself up. She stepped towards him, and told him in a clipped tone that highlighted her impatience, "As you already know, this is a portal to my mind, my inner sanctum. My mirror was made as a transportation device of some sort—_not a toy!_" The last three words were hissed through clenched teeth. She had thrust her torso forwards, as if she was about to lunge at him, but quickly held herself back and prevented Beast Boy from being strangled. Stupidly, he laughed and scratched the back of his head, eyes looking at his feet.

"Um, yeah. I figured that out." Raven's eyes landed on Affection, who was pouting in a different direction, and she was angered even more to hear that Affection had told him about the situation they were in before she could reach him. Who knew what else she had told him? With her mind, she banished her to Crass' realm, where she would at least have to deal with the disgusting emotion as a punishment. It was the least that could have been unleashed upon her, after all the trouble she had stirred up. The three united Titans were walking aimlessly now, in search of an exist while they all contemplated what had happened today and why they couldn't have had a normal breakfast. Raven blamed herself mainly, for blowing up breakfast in the first place.

Cyborg spoke first, breaking the silence. "Would you mind if I asked what they hell you were just doin'?" Beast Boy looked at the grass, as if looking for the answer to his strange behavior in the flowers. Thinking up a quick excuse, Raven cut in: "My emotions have abilities in my mind that I either have control over or refuse to use. Such as Happy and ability to hear everyone's thoughts constantly, Affection can influence one's emotions." She noticed the baffled look on both boys faces and hesitated, trying to word her thoughts correctly. "She can plant thoughts in their mind—in a way, it's as if she excretes endorphins." Raven ignored the expression on Beast Boy's face when the word 'endorphins' was thrown into the sentence. Leave it to the idiot to not even know the most basic biological vocabulary. "Affection is deliberately…affectionate. If you had walked in instead of Beast Boy," Raven signaled to Cyborg, "then she would have done the same thing."

Oh! She was so glad that Honesty was not here now! Of all her emotions, her conscience was the worst when it came to lies; not only could she tell when one was lying, but she would automatically blurt out the secret they were trying to conceal! And honesty was the _last _thing Raven needed. She wasn't able to detect any toying on Affection's part, aside from a few minor tweaking with Beast Boy's thoughts. Other than that, the entire thing could have gone on outside of her mind, without any influence at all. What scared Raven the most was that if appeared the Affection was attracted to her green teammate…this worried her. What could this mean, if Affection took a liking to Beast Boy?

Would this mean that—she gulped—Raven herself was attracted to Beast Boy? It would of course, make sense because of the Soulmate Principle, but Raven refused to accept it. Call it denial, or call it logic, she just couldn't believe that someone as strict with their emotions as she as could fall in love with such an idiotic, green—

"Do you have any idea how to get out of here?" Cyborg implored. Raven answered with a shrug of her shoulders and Cyborg's expression became fearful. "What do you mean by _that_?" He mimicked her shoulder gesture.

"This place has changed since I was last here; it seems, darker. So no, I don't know how to get back home from here." For all she knew, they could be lost in Nevermore for an extremely long time. Possibly even the rest of their lives. Beast Boy, ever one to not even consider the horrifying consequences, rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, walking on Happy Mountain is so—" They walked through a stone archway and Raven's vision shimmered, as if looking through a pool of water, before settling again. They appeared to be in the Central Plain, but it was hard to tell. Everything was as meteor-like as it had been in Knowledge's realm. "Dark…" Beast Boy finished, gawking up at the red-starred sky hanging above his head. He was in disbelief, his arms hanging dumbly as he looked around to affirm something.

"Hey, I know where we are!" Cyborg exclaimed. "We're in that place that I didn't know where we were before!"

"The Central Plain," Raven quietly agreed. Now that she was concentrating on the energy around her, it did seem to be the entryway into her mind. Cyborg pointed to something, happiness lifting his spirtits. Raven followed his finger and saw that he was getting excited over… Raven almost gasped. Could it really be?

"That's that 'Forbidden Door', right Raven?" the large teen asked happily. Raven nodded, suspicious. This was too easy, definitely too simple for her mind to conjure up. She didn't trust the simplicity of this, the effortlessness it would take to make it back to Titans Tower safely. Something had to go wrong now, it just had to. Raven knew that she was capable of thinking up truly evil deeds. There was no way that this was it. Before Cyborg could bound forward, Timid popped up in front of Beast Boy from seemingly out of thin air. She had a habit of doing that. Beast Boy let out a womanish scream, and Timid shrieked in return. Beast Boy screamed a response and jumped into Raven's arms. She scoffed, dropping him onto his bottom, and he screamed once more.

"It's only Timid," she said frostily, wiping whatever germs Beast Boy could be carrying on her cloak.

"I'm sorry!" Timid wailed, already in tears. "I didn't mean to do that!" I—I—I—" She sobbed in deep, choking gasps. Her eyes were droopy and wet with fresh tears that never stopped flowing, her gray robes matching her mood. Raven frowned at her, watching as fat tears rolled down her flushed cheeks and as she sniffled shamefully. Timid was such a weak, stupid emotion. She hated Timid, and what was worse was that her teammates were watching this display as well! It mortified Raven that they would have this imagine in their minds now, of Raven crying like a baby over nothing whatsoever!

"Wait, it's okay!" Beast Boy nervously told the depressed emotion. He reached towards her to put a comforting hand on her shoulder and she started to bawl even harder. Raven clenched her fists at the sound of her wrenching cries. This was just plain ridiculous!

"Just get out of the way!" Raven snarled, shoving Timid so that she was no longer blocking her path. Timid whimpered, obediently backing away. Her tears had momentarily stopped, leaving only a wet face and a trembling lower lip. Stone walls came up from the ground, blocking her way and cutting the Forbidden Door out of her line of vision. She jumped back in surprise, flabbergasted. Timid cowered next to Beast Boy, knees knocking together as her entire body shook. "What in the—"

Beast Boy morphed into a hawk and flew straight up to fly over the walls in their way, but not twenty feet in the air he was electrocuted by some invisible force field. He cawed out in pain; his wings fried, and plummeted out of the sky, landing in a heap of gangly tangled arms next to Cyborg. "Great…" he mumbled to himself, twisting into a sitting position and rubbing his head. Cyborg growled, and Raven could sense the paranoia claiming his mind. He blasted away at the walls with his Sonic Cannon, but after all his attempts, the walls stood proudly. Not even a scratch, or a dent, was seen.

"Urgh!" He screamed in anguish. "We have to get out of here!"

"It's a maze," Timid said shyly, turning pink when everyone stared at her. Raven rolled her eyes. It figured that her mind would come up with something as complicated as an unsolvable maze. She had just known in her gut that they wouldn't make it out so easily. "You can't get out, you have to go through. I can show you the way…but when we reach the end, you won't like me anymore." She hunched her shoulders and tilted her head to Beast Boy. "He already doesn't like me." Raven awkwardly felt her stomach clench as she prepared herself for the ridicule that would follow.

"C'mon! That's not—" Beast Boy tried defending himself, but Timid had turned away, tears sprouting from her eyes again. Raven made sure that her posture was straight as she followed, keeping her eyes strictly ahead of her and avoiding eye contact with Cyborg or Beast Boy. "You really think I don't like you?" he whispered, and Raven wanted to ignore him. But ignoring him would only spark further questioning, so she instead answered frigidly:

"I thought it was obvious form the way that you refer to me as the creepy member of the team." She was suddenly overcome with sadness, but dismissed the feeling in a second. She couldn't afford to turn into a crybaby like Timid over such a trivial matter. She had gone fifteen years without friends; she could go on with being known as the freak among her peers. It was, after all, the role she was born to play. "I know you both don't enjoy my presence. I'm not exactly the liveliest member of the group." Ha! As if that wasn't the understatement of the century!

"Raven, you're one of the Titans!" Cyborg scolded, and Raven kept herself from looking too touched. "Of course we enjoy your presence or whatever! You just never seemed into the whole 'friendship' thing." Beast Boy nodded in agreement and Raven tossed her hood up, choosing to stay silent. _Maybe because I don't know what it's like to have friends, _Raven wanted to say. _Maybe because I've never experienced some of these things before and I don't know how I should react to it. Maybe because I've never known what friendship was like._ But she stayed silent, too coward to voice her thoughts. They simply wouldn't understand what it was like for her.

"So what's her special talent?" Beast Boy mused, changing the subject, to Raven's relief.

"She has an uncanny sense of direction; metaphorically, because she isn't an actual person, she's like a human compass." Hey, she was starting to feel just the slightest bit better now that—

"I'm sorry I scared you," Timid said to beast Boy. "And, I'm sorry for the time I had thrown you in the lake. Oh, and I'm also sorry about the time I—"

Oh, there went her good feeling.

---

"And remember the time I called you both immature pinheads? I'm sorry for that, too. Oh, and, also—"

"For the hundredth-millionth time," Beast Boy gasped, exasperated as he threw up his arms before both he and Cyborg yelled, "_we forgive you!_"

They had been walking for almost ten minutes straight, following Timid throughout the entire maze. Raven was, although she found the maze incredibly tedious, a true work of art. She had some degree of respect for whatever part of her brain had come up with it, be it evil or not. And, throughout the entire maze, Timid had apologized for everything Raven had ever done to either of the Titans in the time period she had spent with them. In only ten minutes—_ten_ _measly minutes!­—_Timid had packed in as many things she could think of to cry over. Raven was utterly humiliated by watching her exact look-alike beg for forgiveness. She would never do such a thing, let alone to someone like Beast Boy and Cyborg! She pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut, wishing that a black hole would open up and swallow her up. Anything would have been better than this…this torture!

Timid looked back at them all, frightened by the volume of their voices, and knocked on the wall she had leaded them to. It opened like a doorway, the Forbidden Door less than four yards away. On either side of the opening in the wall stood a statue; one had a smile, while the other wore a frown. Both, however, had four stone eyes—the tell-tale sign of her fathers handy-work—that glared at nothing. A cloak had been carved onto them, covering their feet and body, along with the stone hood they wore. Each was about twelve feet tall, towering over the Titans and Timid. Both hands were hanging by their sides, fingers curled as if holding something invisible in their palms. But behind their unmoving, stone faces, Raven could sense a dark force. Something wrong with them that sent chills up her spine. "That's the end," Timid told them sadly.

"Sweet!" Beast Boy cheered, thrusting his fists over his head. "All right, Timid!" Cyborg congratulated, just as happy to finally be able to. _Something's going to happen,_ Raven thought, and only a second later, something surely did happen. The two statue's eyes shone a blood-red, burning through the dark atmosphere. They moved, snapping together, back-to-back, and became one living, moving, evil monster. Raven could smell the rotten-egg scent of fathers' presence on it, reeking of it. He was obviously controlling the monster. Her eyes widened as she watched its arms outstretch, the claw-like hands twisting cruelly so that the palms were facing up. In a cloud of red matter, twin iron-bladed swords fell into their hands. A metallic clang resounded throughout the air once the hilt came in contact with their stone hands. Cyborg groaned and took a step backwards; Beast Boy gawked up at it and hid behind his taller friend; Timid threw herself behind _him_; Raven, however, couldn't find the energy to move.

"Told you you wouldn't like me when we got here," Timid stated in a know-it-all manner before disappearing into another part of Nevermore. Raven's eyes met that of the statues and the presence of evil filled her mind, throwing away every thought of escape. Her breathing hitched and fathers' voice echoed through her head again.

_(Do you like my creation, Daughter? This is a gift, a taste of what is to come)_

Fear rooted Raven to the spot. Her mind screamed to run, to at least _move away_ as the statue leered closer to them, but the nerves in her spinal cord wouldn't carry the message down to her useless legs. Every bone in her body was chilled, every cell in her blood frozen, every muscle in her body tense. Her nostrils flared and her eyes widened so far she thought they would tear up. This monstrosity was not natural…and neither was she. Both were the product of Sin, of the True Evil in the world. Raven's eyes were glassy and she couldn't see or hear at all. She was paralyzed now, as Father filled her mind with images of the Earth after his arrival. Terrible, horrible things that caused her body to shake like a leaf in the wind. She was no longer viewing Nevermore as the statue was about to slice her in half, but of Jump City in only a year. Instead of water surrounding the Titans Tower, there was a river of lava pouring out from crevices in the earth. Children raped and murdered. Mothers impregnated with babies attacked by men holding crooked hangers. Demons from Hell flying out from a vortex in the sky and wreaking havoc about the streets, ripping out bystanders throats and bathing in the blood. The Titans, tortured painfully as they were killed slowly, one by one. Father sitting atop the remains of Titans Towers, and in the center of it all there was Raven, horns and all, laughing hysterically.

"Yo, eight eyes! Hiyah!"

Her own voice brought Raven back into reality, and the images ceased. Disoriented, Raven saw the Beast Boy was now in the statue's fist, struggling against it even though it was futile. From the sky came Bravery, Raven's green-cloaked emotion, with a confident smirk on her face. She landed a flying kick directly between the smiling face's eyes. Thrown back by the force of the blow, the statue slid a few meters away, releasing its hold on Beast Boy. He fell to the floor and grunted, but other than a bruised bottom, he would be fine. Bravery landed with her hands on her hips, proud of her attack.

"In your _faces_!" she taunted. The statues head twisted around so that the frowning face was visible. It lunged towards Bravery, both arms hacking at her wildly with the iron-bladed swords. Unafraid, Bravery ducked and dodged in a practiced manner, avoiding each of the slaying movements fluidly. Finding an opening, she jumped into the air. Using to fingers, she slid them from the tip of the statue's hood to the bottom of its cloak. I a second, it split in half, crumbling into useless pieces of stone. As if they were pebbles, Bravery kicked them away with ease. Her super-strength would never cease to amaze Raven.

"Hoo-ah! High-fives! C'mon!" Bravery applauded herself, holding up her hands to be slapped in congratulations. Her hood had been taken down, a cocky grin spread across her face. Confidence oozed off of her, giving Raven a head ache. Confidence was even worse than anger, taste wise. It was like rotten dairy products, clogging up the sinuses.

"Bravery, just leave," Raven ordered. For some reason, Beast Boy was irked at her. But what could she have done that would have annoyed the changeling? Wasn't Raven supposed to be the one mad? Bravery disappeared and Raven shook her head. "This is very bad…" From above, a flock of ravens cawed and flew about, a mob of confused birds. She turned to face the two male Titans. "You have to go." When they refused to move, she made her voice sharper and screamed, "Now!"

"Hold up," Cyborg stopped her, "what's going on here?" Argh, why couldn't those morons just leave her here?

"What, besides being tossed into Ravens mind and playing hide-and-seek with her emotions?" Beast Boy rolled his eyes, and Raven ignored him.

"Last night," Raven admitted a bit ashamedly. This wasn't easy for her—telling her friends, quite bluntly, that she was related to one of scariest intergalactic demons to ever be spawned. But…she felt that she could trust Cyborg and Beast Boy. She continued on, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Something…got loose, something bad." She couldn't look them in the eyes, no matter how much she wished to address them formally. It was just too shameful to let them know.

"Oh no you don't!" Beast Boy growled, stomping his foot. Raven was taken aback that instead of cursing her out and banishing her from society, the reaction she was expecting from them, he went on with his rant. "I've had it with this mystery girl routine!" He flapped his arms around comically, and Raven rolled her eyes, which infuriated Beast Boy even more. Secretly, Raven was pleased that he was more worried about what was going on with her than what would happen to him. But she didn't need him find out. "I want to know exactly what we're talking about here!"

_BA-DUMP!_

Raven's heart surged and blood pumped violently through her chest and she gasped. Something was coming. To answer Beast Boy's unspoken question, a roar came from the horizon. It was so loud that the very ground shook from the vibrations. A tornado of red energy whirled into existence, and from the center of it stood…Trigon. He looked exactly as he had in the visions Raven occasionally received in her sleep, or even during battle. He wore nothing but a black loin-cloth and silver wrist-covers and boots. His skin was red, dyed from the blood of the many souls and lives he had taken. A vein popped out in his neck as he threw back his head and uttered another earthquake-inducing roar, like a triumphant animal. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard to Raven, a calling that only she could understand. White hair that reached his massive shoulders blew around his face. Four yellow eyes glared down at the three Titans, filled with hate and rage. Fear radiated from both Cyborg and Beast Boy, whose ears were pressed flat against his head as he shook. The group of teenagers was struck paralyzed, unable to run or cry out. Cyborgs vocal receptors failed on him, his eye widening. Raven herself was filled with the urge to run.

"Hatred shall rule!" Father bellowed angrily, his voice laced with evil.

"Let's just say…I have issues with my father," Raven whispered. "Trigon…" Her voice was so hoarse that she wasn't sure the two had heard her. Scrambling backwards, the Titans backed away form Father. He followed, taking a giant step forward.

_(Raven)_

Raven took another step back at the sound of her name. Father bore his teeth, long fang-like canines protruding from his white gums.

_(They will not stay by you, leave them and come to me!)_

Following Fathers' assumption, the two boys fled towards the Forbidden Door. Fathers' mouth curled into the closest thing he could manage to a smile, and he shot light form his four eyes at his daughter. Raven leaped out of the way in only a second, a crater left where she once stood. On the ground, she sputtered and coughed, watching Father then turn to the Forbidden Door. He was planning to blow it up, she realized. To trap them here forever. The air hummed with the energy he was about to unleash onto the two, and she stumbled up to her feet. A split second before the two were blasted into eternity, Raven shouted her mantra, a dome of black magic surrounding the trio.

_(Why do you insist on protecting them?)_

Raven felt Father try harder to blow away her spell, to crack the dome and to destroy them all. She had to protect them, she answered. They were her teammates. She couldn't be the reason for their demise. She cared too much about them to let them die. "Get…Out…Of my…Mind…" Raven struggled to speak as she held the force field, her arms outstretched.

"And leave you alone with this thing?" Beast Boy questioned, his eyes on her back. She shivered, her lungs on fire. Her arms were burning, but Raven kept strong. She had to! This was literally a matter of life or death. Ridiculously, Beast Boy felt outraged by her command. "Not gunna happen!" Cyborg added stubbornly, and Raven groaned. She wasn't able to argue and keep up the spell. Something would have to stop, and she could already feel the force field begin to waver. Why did they wish to stay? Raven wondered? She knew that they feared Father with such a powerful intensity.

"It's my problem," she breathed to them. The world was beginning to darken, and the spell lessened even more. She was putting more energy into talking then into protecting them. "I'll deal with it. If I lose, you be stuck in here forever!" From her core, she projected more energy out of her hands, trying to strengthen the magic surrounding them. From outside, Father began to bombard the dome with balls of fire materializing in his palms. One after another they came, in an endless torrent. Finally, the dome gave way, shattering like glass. Protecting her face, Raven crossed her wrists, her breathing heavy. All was silent.

"Go!" Raven shouted suddenly, while Father was distracted. Mentally, she pushed the two boys towards the Forbidden Door. Now, while they made their escape, she had to defeat Father. By herself, as usual. Kicking off the ground, Raven flew into the skies, firing random bursts of telekinetic energy at Fathers' head. He clapped his hands, swatting at her like she was an annoying insect. That's what she was to him—an insignificant mosquito. He began firing back at her, missing as she weaved and dodged. Finally though, one managed to hit her. She screamed out in torment, pain erupting all over her body. Lava flowed through her veins, stinging her skin. She closed her eyes and fainted.

---

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

It was so simple, so easy. She should have just let Father kill her from the second he found her. There was no use in running. Now he would just have her, and she would let him. She would allow the darkness to swallow her up, to let the inner-demon from within consume her. She would let it all happen and never have to worry about fighting again. In a way, she was glad that she could finally please her father.

Pressure was applied to her right shoulder and her eyelids fluttered open. She was falling towards the ground from a high altitude, face-first, about to die. Oddly enough, this feeling did not disturb her. Her eyes flickered to the spot where something was holding her and she saw—

_Beast Boy!_

There he was in the form of a hawk, diving with her, with one talon firmly on her shoulder. Finding her bearings, Raven steadied herself and floated safely to the ground. She fell onto her butt, exhaling with exhaustion and holding her head. Beast Boy swooped down next to her, kneeling by her side in human form again. She gazed at him from beneath her eyelashes and he smiled, be it out of relief or something else. Raven felt her face remold itself in shock, betraying the emotionless shield she wished it to be. His smile just went right through her heart, tugging on it until she had to respond with something. He had stayed with her, he hadn't left her alone. Her stomach fluttered nervously at the thought that he didn't want to leave her. "You…stayed? I thought you didn't like me…" she trailed off, losing concentration.

"I thought you didn't like me," Beast Boy replied, tentatively placing a hand on her shoulder. Before she could stop herself, they were sharing a secret smile like two best friends. She studied his face for a sign of betrayal, for something that would tell her that in a second he was about to shove her and run for his life. But his eyes seemed determined, and she knew that he would stay with her through thick and thin. Till the very end. It was such a comforting thought that she would have someone to stand tall with her while she gave in. And the way he was looking at her…Azar help her, was her heart flurrying? She hoped it had been slight enough that he wouldn't hear it!

"Yo, I like both of you!" Cyborg screeched. She wanted to sigh. Leave it to Cyborg to ruin a perfectly nice moment between the two. "Now get your butts over here!" Beast Boy's eyes went from her face to Fathers', and Raven followed him. Dear Goddess, was he becoming even more powerful?

"Feel my fury!" Father yelled, firing rays of heat vision to Cyborg. The robot jumped to the side, avoiding being blasted to pieces. Tag-teaming with each other, Beast Boy and Cyborg rushed Father, taking him down. Cyborg shot at him with his Sonic Cannon, while Beast Boy circled his head as a pterodactyl. Bravely, he flew behind his head a grabbed a chunk of snow-white hair. Father bellowed in pain as Beast Boy tugged at it with all of his strength, and Raven, stunned, thought: _He's risking his life for me?_ Father fell onto his back, but in a second he was back up, angered beyond reason. Apparently it would be no use going on like this. His anger magnified by the annoyance of the Titans, he rapidly shot at Cyborg. Before the young man could melt into a puddle, pterodactyl-Beast Boy picked him up and flew him safely away. Following Beast Boy, Raven ran behind a slant of rock to gain time and use it as a shelter. Father temporarily went to search for them in another part of the mindscape. "He's too strong," Raven told herself, facing the truth. Looking at the boys, she took down her hood to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. "Even with your help, I cannot defeat him."

"So why don't you call for back up? What about all those other yous?" Cyborg whispered back furiously. His chest heaved, although his lungs were artificial, because of human habits.

"Yeah, the green one kinda kicked butt," Beast Boy informed her shyly.

"It still wouldn't be enough," Raven denied, coming so close to telling them that all was lost. "None of my other sides have the kind of power we need."

"Not alone." Raven peered up at him, surprised to hear what he had to say. Looking straight at her, his mouth fell open, but he went on after a second of hesitation. "But what about together? They're all a part of who you are, right?" Raven blinked, taken aback. Had that really come from Beast Boy, of all people? Fathers' thundering footsteps could be heard, and the rock they were cowering behind crumbled to pebbles. As the rocks showered over them, Beast Boy instinctively covered Raven's body with his own, acting as a human shield. Now father was starting to blow up everything in his path, trying to blast the Titans out.

"Go for it, we got your back!" Cyborg cheered, flashing her a grin and giving her a thumbs up. Raven looked from Cyborg to Beast Boy, unsure whether she believed they truly trusted her. The changeling smiled in agreement, and she felt self-conscious when he did not look away. "Let's move!" Cyborg boomed, sprinting towards Father. Beast Boy hesitated, caught between a rock and a hard place as Raven watched him expectantly. Then he hugged her awkwardly, and Raven stiffened her shoulders. His face was so close to hers, his arms wrapped around her…And then in a second he was off before Raven could even evaluate the hug. That was actually the first time she had ever been hugged. And, although it had lasted only a second, it was nice. A warm feeling was set in her stomach, happiness filling her. Without a word, Beast Boy ran after Cyborg, determined to protect her.

_Alright Raven, it's time for you to do your share._

Clearing her mind, Raven took a deep breath and stood with her arms outstretched, her shoulders back. She exhaled slowly, calling her emotions to the location she was at. They appeared, all colors of the rainbow: Happy, Affection, Wisdom, Knowledge, Honesty, Jealousy, Timid, and lastly Crass, who announced her arrival with a loud burp, pinky in ear. Raven closed her eyes, concentrating on focusing all of her energy into the emotions. They were all a part of her, and she was the main part of them. They needed to merge to finally become one. Raven and her emotions floated into the air, magic crackling between them. They began to circle her, slowly at first, before turning into a whirl-wind of colors. Raven felt the power from her other sides, felt as their abilities passed over her like ocean waves. She opened her eyes and saw that her cloak had been dyed pure white. Father was battling with the two Titan boys, but Raven intervened before any harm could befall them. She was ready now, stronger. She drew back her hands to build up energy, then thrust them out and fired the largest ray of telekinetic matter she had ever created at Father. He stopped his attack on the two boys and answered her energy ray with a hit of his own, orange flames licking at her newly-white ones. The two rays met in the middles, the two magic-wielders evenly matched. Raven grunted and urged her powers further, slowly overcoming Fathers' power.

When he was defeated, Father shrunk into another one of Raven's emotions, Anger. Anger was like the rest, cloaked in a cape of red, but with four terribly evil red eyes. Raven went down to look it straight in the eyes, and it submitted to her will, realizing that now was not the time for a takeover. Anger glared at her passively, unwilling to fight any longer, and with a crackle of red magic, it was sucked back into Raven. A cloud of smoke appeared, and Raven groaned, hunched over herself as the dust cleared. The power she had been feeling had exited her, leaving her feeling worthless and tired. A breeze cooled her sweaty brow and she stood proudly before falling backwards.

"It's okay, we got'chu," Cyobrg assured her. Beast Boy caught her from behind, wrapping an arm around her waist. Quickly, Raven placed herself on her feet, embarrassed by the contact the two had shared. Having him hug her was one thing, but his arm on her waist mad her feel as if they were…dating. Her face grew warm and she shook her head to clear the flow of blood, hoping he hadn't noticed her discomfort. That would have been…not good.

"Thank you," she said, and then added slowly, "friends." The word sounded so strange on her tongue, but she enjoyed the way it felt coming out of her mouth. It was a nice, heart-warming word.

"So," Beast Boy said slowly, "does this mean we really are friends?"

Raven flushed, the sound of the word directed at her causing her discomfort. But, if it made any sense, a pleasant sense of discomfort. "Mm-hm," she agreed, smiling a bit to show no hostility. How strange this all was to her! He waggled his eyebrows at her adorably, tilting his head to the side. His hands clapped together in a praying position. "And you really think I'm funny?" Her smile fell, the color fading from her face. Cyborg gave the boy a strange expression, and Raven narrowed her eyes.

"Don't push it." Beast Boy sighed.

"Worth a try…"

"So how about getting us—" Cyborg began.

Raven thrust her hands out, opening a vortex and dropping the Titans back in her room.

"Home?" the cybernetic Titan finished, smiling as he looked around. Raven, too, was happy to be home again. Beast Boy's ear twitched and he whispered, "There's someone at the door, dudes." Raven glanced at the door, then back at her new friends. Perhaps they were old friends that she had never known before. Together, they walked to the door, and it opened automatically. Starefire and Robin were standing outside in a funny position: Starfire was standing perfectly relaxed with one fist extended to knock on the door. Robin, on the other hand, was struggling as he tried to fight her alien strength and prevent her from opening the door, both hands wrapped around her wrist, one foot on the door, with his back arched like a bow. Now that the door had opened, Robin fell back onto the floor, and Raven could hear a snicker escape from Beast Boy. Starfire gasped as the three Titans filed out from Raven's room.

"Where have you guys been?" Robin wondered, the dirt-taste of worry obvious on him. Raven caught Cyborg and Beast Boy's eyes, looking down to hide her smile.

"Just gettin' to know each other," Cyborg answered innocently. It technically wasn't a lie…

"Come friends!" Starfire cried with her arms thrown out. "We shall prepare a new breakfast feast!" Cyborg placed his hands on his hips while Raven reverted back to her original expression. Was Starfire really going to suggest breakfast? At this hour?

"It's a little late for breakfast, Star…" He trailed off, his gaze landing on Raven. "Maybe just some herbal tea," he prodded, failing at nonchalance. But even though he lacked any tact, his gesture was kind. Sweet, one might say. Raven, grateful, colored at his words, looking down the hall.

"Actually, breakfast sounds, nice…" She told him. Beast Boy raised an eyebrow, unsure of how to answer. Then he smiled a lip-splitting grin at her, eyes sparkling.

"Breakfast for diner, coming right up!" he said, racing to the kitchen.

"Oh now, I'm cookin' this time!" Cyborg shouted as he chased the green boy down the hall. "And we're usin' real eggs!" Raven watched Beast Boy's back as he disappeared down the corner. He truly was a caring person…

"So you were really hanging out before?" Robin asked as he strode alongside her. Raven nodded, but then stopped in her tracks. "I'll…be right there. I forgot something in my room. Keep a plate ready for me," Raven told him. She slipped back into her room, waiting until no one was left in the hall. Then she walked over to her Meditation Mirror, tracing the design.

"Azarath Mentrion Zinthos," she whispered into it. Instead of disappearing into her mind, a familiar face appeared in the mirror. It was that of her own, but the reflection was clothed in purple…Affection. Raven didn't have the time to go back into her mind to ask something, but she needed her question answeed. When she and Cyborg had walked in on Affection, the scene still bothered her. The fact that Beast Boy was so excited, and the fact that Affection had not been trying to trick him. It all just seemed off to Raven. Affection blinked in surprise, gazing up at Raven. It took her a moment until she could realize that Raven had brought her to the passageway between Nevermore and Earth.

**"Huh?" **she asked. **"What do you want now? Anger's been taken care of, so—"**

"I want to know what happened before," Raven told her. "And I'm in a rush right now, because my friends are expecting me for dinner." Oh, there was that word again! She just loved being able to use it!

**"What are you talking about?"**Affection asked, playing innocent. Raven scoffed.

"You know very well what. When you…you were _seducing_ Beast Boy!" She spat. Raven didn't feel comfortable imagining the scene again. Seeing Affection kissing him, her very image kissing Beast Boy, made her stomach flop in different directions. And the thought that, although it was someone in her exact image, he had been kissing a girl made her temper flame. "Why weren't you pretending?"

Affection stared at her, dumbfounded. **"I didn't need to pretend, Raven. I was just acting as you would have." **She waited for a response, but was greeted by a blank stare. **"Isn't it obvious?" **she went on.** "You're in love with him."**

**---**

**I know there was a little bit of a wait on this one, and it's just plain horrible nonetheless, but whatever. As usual, spelling and grammer are probably atrocious, so...yeah. I'm so sick of "Nevermore", right now, I was just happy to finally get past it :)**


	8. Authors' NoteStupidity

First, I'd like to apologize for taking so long to update. I'm working on re-writing the shitty thing I called a story and I hope to post it soon. I'm not able to go on the computer all that much, I actually have a social life, and I do have to get ahead in my studies, as completely lame and nerdy as that sounds. I'm friggin' failing, and I can't believe I really said "ahead in my studies." Whatever, it's midnight and I'm rambling. I wanted to say that I haven't given up on this story, I enjoy it very much, and that I AM trying to fix it. I'm so sorry for ignoring any comment you might have left me about it, etc., etc.

Lastly, I realize that I made Beast Boy and Raven get a bit too attached in the first few episodes, which would never have lasted through the remainder of the series. So, the seasons will go along the lines of:

Season One: Just trying to deal with each others' presence; mainly becoming "friends."

Season Two: Raven realizing she may like him, but becoming more antisocial because of Terra.

Season Three: Beast Boy realizing that he may like Raven, but the whole scenerio going one kind of sucks for him ;P

Season Four: Much more sexual tension once they both realize that they like each other, but Raven is still somewhat reluctant to admit anything to him.

Season Five: Finally a couple, all the episodes left will be with Beast Boy and Raven each others' lovers.

Movie/Special: The two have broken up for a short period of time, still staying chummy, but sad about it nonetheless. After the entire mishap, they get back together yet again, along with Robin and Starfire.

God, this is so late and so stupid sounding and I don't sound like any respectable fan fiction writer at all, but at this hour I have stopped caring. The plot for each season might change later on. I don't know right now, I really don't. I'm apologizing again for how stupid this all is, and how much of a waste of time it is as well. But I needed to make myself feel less of an ass by making sure you all knew I was coming back soon.

I'd appreciate if no one commented on this, because this was meant to be more of a reassurance than anything else. I can't think of anything else to say, so I'm going to shut up before I make this even dumber than it already is.

Happy fanfictioning.

TooLameToThinkOfAName


End file.
